A changing world
Satoshi Omura
Graduated from University of Yamanashi
Fights incredibly horrible diseases
Roundworms
Roundworm infections
More common in poor countries
Sometimes no symptoms
Shortness of breath
Fever
Stomach pain
Diarrhea
Eggs can infect humans
Get onto food
Grow in the stomach
15 to 20 centimeters long!!
Pretty horrible
I’m not showing you …
… the REALLY bad pictures
Professor Omura helped many people
Treatments for infections
Avermectin
Very bad medical conditions
But science has limits
World population is exploding
Over 7 billion now
1 billion in 1800
370 million in 1350
Everyone should follow Japan
Great famine
Black Death
Starvation
Disease
Too many people
Growing too fast!
Starvation and disease
War
Migrants
• Iraq• Syria• Afghanistan• Pakistan• Bangladesh• Eritrea• Somalia• Nigeria• Sudan
London 2001
Huge protests against war in Iraq
London 2001
Our governments went to war, anyway
Why?
War is profitable
If people can make money, they’ll do it
American war veterans in 2012
Throwing medals away
Soldiers protesting the wars
Military-industry
They want money and power
They will do very bad things
They will start wars
Difficult to protest
It seems unpatriotic
But we keep starting wars
Government is unreliable
Military is unreliable
Corporations are unreliable
How about scientists?
Consider Malaria
What causes malaria?
These are the symptoms
Mosquitoes spread the disease
They transmit the disease
The mosquito bites humans
Symptoms develop in about 15 days
The malaria parasite
Malaria bites humans
Infects the human
Given back to the mosquito
The mosquito bites humans
Enter the human body
Infection enters the liver
May “sleep” in the liver up to 30 years
Different stages, different names
Infection travels to the blood
Transmitted TO the mosquito when they bite infected patients
Malaria parasite has TWO hosts
For example, a human and a mosquito
About 200 million cases of malaria every year
About a million deaths every year
Most cases in Africa
I lived in Sudan for one year
You need a net
Can we get rid of malaria?
Smallpox vaccine
Very successful
Smallpox has been eradicated
There’s no malaria vaccine
Malaria parasites are getting stronger
Anti-malaria drugs
Treatment for severe malaria
Here’s mefloquine
Quinine has been used since (at least) the 17th century
Perhaps earlier
Quinine discovered in South America
Europeans were told about it in the 16th century
Quinine from a tree’s bark
Quinchona tree
Long history
Tonic water contains Quinine
Gin and tonic
British in India
G & T against Malaria
Artemisinin is used in Chinese medicine
Derived from a plant
People were optimistic
Malaria parasites already resistant to chloroquine
Resistant to this, too
Pailin in Cambodia
Pailin in Cambodia
Parasite is becoming more resistant
This is particularly worrying …
… because resistance to drugs …
… has started here before.
If resistance spreads to Africa …
… it’s really a problem
It’s a DISASTER
So what’s the solution?
Eradicate Malaria
Quickly
Do it now!
Discover a vaccine
Before the end of the class!
You’ll get a Nobel Prize
And an automatic A for this course
Maybe even A ➕
But don’t forget …
… there’s a LONG history
These parasites are tough
We’ve been thinking about this …
… for a LONG time
The parasite keeps winning
Still there’s hope
Guinea worm
Really horrible!
A long worm lives in the body!
People drink infected water
The worm grows in the stomach
Comes out of the skin!
Like this!
Really bad
Only dogs and humans get it
Gradually removed …
By winding it around a stick!
Up to one meter long
How can it be eradicated?
• No vaccine• But we can kill the baby worms• And water can be cleaned• 3.5 million cases of Guinea worm in 1986!• 126 cases in 2014• That’s great!!• Unless you are one of the 126 cases