• rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    600k deaths worldwide. If a country wants disease funding from the Bill and Malinda Gates foundation, they have to chase down all malaria cases even if there are only a few isolated cases in the entire country. The goal is noble. The method is not.

    • Ian@Cambio@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      That’s the thing about the disease … it’s binary. It either exists or doesn’t. If you cure all the cases, there is nowhere to catch it. If you leave a small population with it, then there’s always the chance it comes back. My dad was vaxed for smallpox, but I am not…

      • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Malaria’s mechanism of transmission is exclusively through mosquito bites, it’s a parasite that cannot be spread like COVID. Countries that are at high risk of malaria know how to track the disease and identify outbreaks so they can handle it correctly. Wiping out the disease would be great, but in the capitalist rules-based order, it’s far too difficult to eradicate the disease. What the foundation is doing is forcing poor countries to focus on malaria for funding, which reduces their ability to respond to outbreaks of other diseases. It’s a net negative for the countries that need the funds but have successfully managed malaria.