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Asked by dwilliamstts to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 11 Mar 2011.
Question: Do you think that anti-malaria measures will lower mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next twenty years? Or will it take longer?
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Stephen Moss answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Great question. If they work then for sure, because malaria is such a major cause of death. Even simple measures, like using mosquito nets, have been shown to have a big impact, so it doesn’t all have to be about new drugs.
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Julian Rayner answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Absolutely malaria mortality rates will go down in the next twenty years, and hopefully much sooner. Wouldn’t be working in the field if I didn’t passionately believe that there is a big difference to be made. How that reduction will happen is a more difficult question – lots of people with different ideas. In reality it will be some combination of bednets, insecticide spraying, new drugs and a vaccine (which people have been trying to develop for 40 years, with no licensed vaccine available yet).
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Eoin Lettice answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Nice question!
It’s not my area and I’m sure Julian can give you a better answer than I could but to summarise – I hope so!
When dealing with plant diseases and pests, we find that an integrated approach works best – so we use lots of different approaches that help a bit rather than one “silver bullet” that solves the problem in one go. I imagine if science is to lower mortality rates caused by malaria, it will be done with lots of smaller successes rather than one silver bullet solution.
Eoin
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Charlie Ryan answered on 11 Mar 2011:
hi dwilliamstts wow some question! I’m way out of my knowledge base here, but my view is that sub saharan africa’s economy will improve over the next 20 years, and this will lower the mortality rate. But to be honest this is a question for a biologist/geographer.
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