OT: A Possible Second Disease to be Eradicated from the Earth!

It's remarkable there doesn't seem to be any systemic medication that can touch it; in the 21st century the old-fashioned method of carefully pulling the lil bastard out over time still seems to be the best.

Even metronidazole doesn't seem to kill it, oral metronidazole is a brutal drug that can take out bigger parasitic targets than just bacteria.

ulus medinensis, called Guinea worm disease. It infects those drinking unf iltered surface water. There is no cure for the disease. As the final sta ge of the worm's life it emerges from the body through a very painful sore so as to release tens of thousands of larvae.

out there doesn't seem to be another host for this worm and it has a life c ycle of about a year. So there is an effort to focus on the affected areas and promoting safe drinking water habits. Once the life cycle is disrupte d long enough, the worm will be gone... for good.

ere just two confirmed cases. That is amazing. If they succeed in eradica ting the Guinea worm, it will be only the second disease to have been done so. That's amazing!

They mentioned that pulling the worm out can create problems if the worm sn aps in half. The worm may still create problems if killed by drugs. There is an eye disease caused by a worm infection which only gets worse if you kill the parasite. I think they call it river blindness.

Yeah it's a question of which is "better" having a large open lesion or lesions that can be an entry point for secondary infections or keeping the skin barrier intact and having a potentially ~1 meter long parasite croak inside you and what are the risks of just leaving it up to the immune system to handle the disposal. It'll handle it somehow but I bet that's risky, too, particularly in some patients who might not be that well-healthy to begin with.

Neither seem particularly appealing...

It's remarkable - unbelievable really - that China could have a government for so long that micromanaged how everyone did everything and yet they never managed to change their farming methods so they wouldn't be the disease incubator of the world. That's scientific socialism for you.

Eeeek! You horrible person! People are deliberately causing the extinction of another precious species, and you're cheering!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Yes, parasitic worms aren't the only things that should be eradicated.

Actually, it's grinding poverty - China hasn't got enough fertile land to f eed it's population, and is now very cautious about changing agricultural p ractice in case it cuts into food production.

Mao's Great Leap Forward killed somewhere between 18 million and 45 million people between 1958 and 1962, and the survivors learned the lesson.

There's nothing particularly socialist about central government micro-manag ement - Karl Marx's enthusiasm for the "leading role of the party" got him and the proto-Communists thrown out of the international socialist movement in 1871, with some rather prescient prophecies about it leading to a worse tyranny than the Tsar's.

The Communist Party in China is just one more criminal conspiracy - the big gest protection racket in town - if a reasonably well-educated and competen t one.

They micromanage the things they micromanage. Authoritarianism is actually pretty lazy and doesn't like handling potential problems in a timely, nuanced, or equitable way. So they let problems go and hope they'll fix themselves or go away, like selling potentially hazardous food products.

The risks are possibly predictable but it's hands-off approach until something really serious happens, kick the can down the line, oops suddenly people are dying! Ok, clamp down hard, stop everything, find the people responsible and imprison/execute them, ban the entire thing (whatever it is) and even some tangential legitimate practices while you're at it. You see, we're doing it for the good of The People. And think of the Children. We must be tough.

All thuggish authoritarian power-structures tend to operate this (lazy) way, down to homeowner's associations and PTA organizations. But every power-structure is in some part authoritarian it's a matter of degree.

That is to say when all you have is a hammer every potential problem looks like a nail

China looks at the Trump Party and wonders why it took so long for America to catch up to them in the philosophy-of-governance department.

You'd think Conservatives would appreciate the conservative approach China still takes to many industries. They often do things in the old-fashion and have an appreciation for traditional methods.

e.g. coal and steam power aren't historical curiosities in many areas even in the 21st century. Chugga chugga chugga:

Yeah, some people are nostalgic for slave labor.

The for-profit prison industry sure seems to be...