Do they still make Quinine?

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And if they do, where does one get it?

I think we'll manage the rat population (we have 14 cats, all vaccinated for rabies and all but the newest kitties have been "fixed". But can't help worrying about the mosquito population explosion that will come our way next spring (think water/grey water spillage, overflow, etc..).

We've got lots of furry little nightfliers around here to help eat away (pun intended :) ) at the skeeter clan, but I don't know if there's enough of them. Does malaria even exist in colder (north of 45 Lat) climates?

Thanks again!

Got bats?

-- Arewyn (isitthatlate@lready?.com), June 24, 1999

Answers

Believe it was readily available until couple of years ago, then was abused in some manner, so generally withdrawn. May still be available to adults as over the counter item retained in Pharmacists private area. Perhaps someone else can be more specific.

-- A. Hambley (a.hambley@usa.net), June 24, 1999.

Depending on where you live, there is a sure fire way to control mosquito populations. In the African countries where malaria has taken a devestating toll on the population they have come up with a cheap, effective way to rid themselves of the little bugs. They take low grade dynomite and blow up and pools of standing water that may harbor mosquito larvae and eggs. Now obviously you can't go around blowing pools of stagnant water up if you live in even a semi-urban community but for those of you who live out in the sticks then it's something to consider. You can make your own bug-bombs with black powder, cannon fuse and empty CO2 cartidges. Trust me they pack the same whallop as your military fragmentational grenade and can easily disrupt a hundred gallons of water. The gun powder is available at your local gun shops, the cannon fuse can be bought through the mail from fireworks distributors and the CO2 cartridges can be used from the discarded cans of BB guns. The BB guns themselves can be used to control rats and other varmints too as you use up the gas inside the cartdriges.

Hope that helps... be careful. With a little caution you too can safely rid yourselves of biting nasties around your home.

-- (Please@be.x-tra careful), June 24, 1999.


Try drinking lots of tonic water. It used to contain quinine. Don;t know if it still does tho.

-- pauline jansen (paulinej@angliss.vic.edu.au), June 24, 1999.

homeopaty is an solution to many of the problems we"ll be facing soon (as well as now), there are many sites about this wonderful system of medicine. It saved my daughters life and improved our overall health. Something you can learn and practice for acute and emergency situations..chronic care may need the help of a trained homeopath. Check out arnica.com, A2Zhomeopathy.com, alchemilla.com, should get you to a few good links as well. There is homeopathic quinine. It was the first substance tested by Hahnemann (founder of Homeopathy)on himself about 200 yrs. ago. It works!

-- Janice (careful@swbell.net), June 24, 1999.

(for educational/research purposes only)

September 28, 1998

PERSONAL HEALTH

Fighting a Stronger and Meaner Strain of Malaria

Related Article Expanded Coverage of Science

Diagram Malaria: A Truly Vicious Cycle

By JANE E. BRODY

ou may wonder why I would write a Personal Health column about malaria when there is no malaria in the United States. Well, that is only partly true. Malaria is not endemic in this country or to Canada or Europe. But one-third of the world's population lives where the malaria parasite and its carrier mosquitoes thrive, and every year more than one million Americans travel to those areas for business or pleasure. Malaria, it seems, is gaining ground annually as control efforts become more costly and cumbersome.

Worldwide there are 300 million to 500 million cases of malaria and 2 million to 3 million deaths from the disease each year. And each year the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta receives reports of 1,000 to 1,200 cases of malaria that were acquired abroad but diagnosed in this country. A malaria expert at the centers, Dr. Trenton Ruebush, estimates that an equal number of unreported cases occur among United States residents. But Ruebush said that all malaria deaths that occur in the United States, normally four or five a year, are probably reported.

Why so many cases, and why should anyone die of a disease that doctors have long known how to cure? Because many people outside the endemic areas do not take malaria seriously and ignore the measures recommended to prevent it or are careless about them. When the flu-like symptoms of malaria develop, they are often not acted on soon enough. In addition, outside of endemic areas, doctors often fail to recognize the symptoms of malaria and thus do not make the correct diagnosis or treat the disease properly or quickly enough to cure it.

Complicating matters, preventive measures have gotten trickier and much more costly in recent years, ever since the malaria parasite in most areas developed resistance to chloroquine, the inexpensive and well-tolerated medication that had long been used to prevent and treat malaria. Current options cost a lot more and are associated with potentially more serious side effects.

Furthermore, there is currently no effective anti-malarial vaccine, nor is there one on the immediate horizon, despite efforts by scientists in the United States and elsewhere to uncover the parasite's Achilles heel and block its ability to flourish in the human body.

A Wily Parasite

Malaria is a disease of the tropics and subtropics. Its range extends as far north as the Mediterranean, Middle East, Mexico, Northern India and China and as far south as the Republic of South Africa, Argentina and New Guinea. There are four types of the malaria parasite that normally infect people, but only one -- Plasmodium falciparum -- is potentially deadly. P. falciparum flourishes in Africa, where it is responsible for 95 percent of cases. In fact, Ruebush said, worldwide 90 percent of all malaria infections and 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa.

In other endemic areas, falciparum malaria is responsible for 5 percent to 50 percent of cases. The other three types, P. vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae, are far less virulent, although they can make their victims quite miserable for varying lengths of time.

As Dr. Robert S. Desowitz, an expert in tropical diseases, explains in his engrossing book "The Malaria Capers" (W. W. Norton, 1991), a malaria infection in humans begins when an infected female Anopheles mosquito, seeking a blood meal to foster the development of her eggs, injects into the human bloodstream threadlike malaria parasites called sporozoites that have been stored in her salivary glands.

Thousands of sporozoites are usually injected into the blood with one mosquito bite, and they quickly invade the cells in the liver where they multiply. In this period, the infected person experiences no symptoms. The first symptoms appear about 10 to 35 days later when the liver cells burst and the spores enter the blood stream, causing intense chills and sweating with high fever. Then the symptoms come and go -- usually in 24- to 72-hour cycles -- as the tiny parasites feed on the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin of the infected person's red blood cells. Each cycle can render the victim more anemic with less and less oxygen reaching the brain and other vital tissues.

Ruebush said that two of the nondeadly species could remain alive in a person's liver for up to a couple of years, periodically causing relapses of malarial symptoms. The other nonfatal form can hide in the body outside the liver for up to 30 to 40 years, waiting for some unknown signal to trigger its emergence and cause a recurrence of symptoms. The deadly species, P. falciparum, causes the most severe symptoms, but if the victim does not get treated and does not die, the infection burns itself out within a year or two.

Prevention and Treatment

Since there is no vaccine against malaria, prevention depends on two important measures: taking a drug that combats the parasite prophylactically -- that is, in advance of any known infection -- and avoiding bites by the Anopheles mosquito. In the few areas where there is still little or no chloroquine resistance, this drug is taken weekly starting one week prior to departure for the endemic area, weekly while there and for four weeks after returning home.

For most endemic areas where chloroquine-resistant parasites flourish, the Centers for Disease Control now recommends mefloquine, sold under the trade name of Lariam. This drug is taken one time a week before departure, each week while in the malaria area and for four weeks after returning. It is extremely effective but expensive -- about $7 a tablet -- so for a two-week trip the cost is about $50.

Lariam can sometimes cause anxiety, depression, hallucinations and insomnia, and in one in 10,000 or 15,000 cases, these side effects are incapacitating. A trip-mate of mine to Panama developed sky-high blood pressure, fever, shaking chills, severe anxiety, hallucinations and was unable to walk, all attributed to Lariam. It took her months to recover.

An equally effective alternative to Lariam is doxycycline, which is recommended for northern Thailand, where mefloquine resistance has been detected. Doxycycline has to be taken daily, starting one to two days before departure and continued for four weeks after returning. Anyone who chooses doxycycline must be very conscientious about taking it every day; if you miss a couple of days, you are unprotected. Among the possible side effects are upset stomach, yeast infection in women and increased sensitivity to the sun -- which means you must remain covered to avoid a severe sunburn.

A standby treatment is the drug Fansidar, which can cause rather severe skin rashes. It is used only as an emergency treatment, should symptoms suspicious of malaria develop when the person is far from medical care. But even if one takes Fansidar, it is vital to get to a doctor for thorough treatment as soon as possible.

Ruebush emphasized that preventive medication is only one measure. Travelers should be aware of the habits of the Anopheles mosquito, which typically reigns in rural areas and bites between dusk and dawn (although in heavily shaded jungle areas it may bite in daylight). Use of protective clothing and insect repellent and a mosquito net over the bed at night (preferably first dipped in a solution of insecticide) are important parts of malaria prevention.

Anyone who develops a fever a week to a month after being in an area where malaria is a problem must report immediately to a doctor, who should do a blood smear right away. As Ruebush said, "Malaria is eminently curable if it is caught early and treated appropriately."

Many large cities now have clinics that advise travelers and administer vaccines. State and local health departments may also be helpful. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has a malaria hotline -- 770-488-7788 -- that can be reached 24 hours a day every day and where callers can request a faxed copy of protective information.

PERSONAL HEALTH is published weekly, on Tuesdays. Click here for a list of links to other columns in the series.

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-- (fake@out.com), June 24, 1999.



Great strides were made afthe WWII with the widespread intro of DDT. Now, I am no fan of DDT, but without a safe substitute for area spraying, Malaria has made a startling comeback. Maps are maintained by WHO tracking the annual advance.

Moral...don't "ban"something until there is a safe and effective substitute (for DichloroDiphenylTrichloloethane)

And yes, Malaria was endemic in the Southeast.



-- K. Stevens (kstevens@It's all going away in January.com), June 24, 1999.


This may seem a little simplistic but it's worked for us. I live in Florida and thought the barrage of mosquitos in summer (I mean millions!!) was inescapable. A few weeks ago, I happened to find a spot under some bushes, about 2 feet by 3 feet, with standing water FILLED with mosquito larvae about 1/2 inch thick! It's where my washer and sink drain out. A combination of bleach and bug spray did not kill them so I used my mother's old trick. Boiled a pot of water and poured it on them. They died instantly. Do you know we have hardly been bothered at all since?! And we have seven acres! I founf the prime breeding ground responsible for the majority of them. Much happier now!

-- dakota (none@thistime.com), June 24, 1999.

If you find a breeding ground and live in an urban area, you can pour any type of oil (including used cooking oil) on the standing water. When the larvae surface to breathe, the oil suffocates them. Doesn't work on large bodies of water and you must be careful not to apply it to ponds where fish are dependant on various species of wigglers for food. You might be dependant on the fish for food later.

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), June 25, 1999.

Oil is extremely destructive to an aquatic environment and should never be used. Toss a "Bt dunk" into pools of standing water to kill the larvae, and make sure you haven't needlessly created any standing pools on your property (like exposed barrels, tires, etc.).

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), June 25, 1999.

Addendum to above post by pauline jansen . .

Try drinking lots of GIN and tonic.

Historical note. Gin and tonic became popular with those pasty-faced englishmen sent to the furthest malaria-stricken outposts of the (nasty, exploitative, etc etc) empire, and does contain a lot of quinine, which offers some protection against malaria, but has the common side effect of causing hair-loss in men (every silver lining has a cloud).

Anyway, tonic is fine, but its much finer with a dash of "bombay sapphire" or "tanqueray". Who said being prepared cant be fun ? And if you ever need well-distilled alcohol for medicinal purposes . . .

:)

Cheers

W0lv3r1n3

-- W0lv3r1n3 (W0lv3r1n3@yahoo.com), June 25, 1999.



I was watching something on the Discovery channel a few weeks ago and they said in Africa they had started spraying oil into small puddles of standing water. Don't know what kind of oil but the idea is that it covers the surface of the water and suffocates the mosquito larve who float just below the surface.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), June 25, 1999.


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