Thailand battles drug-resistant malaria

By Peter Janssen

KANCHANABURI: -- MAEO, 6, bravely held out her forefinger for a quick jab at the Malaria Post in Tai Muang, 10 km from the Myanmar border, in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province. A month ago, Maeo, whose family is from Myanmar’s Karen ethnic minority group and lacks Thai citizenship, tested positive for malaria.

She was back for a follow-up test after a combined treatment of the anti-malarial drugs artemisinin and mafloquine.

“She has tested negative,” Malaria Post worker Laksanna Kaewlere said, after checking Maeo’s blood sample in a test kit. Had Maeo tested positive, she would have joined the growing ranks of patients for whom the most recent drug against the malaria parasite — artemisinin — has failed.

Artemisinin is usually used in combination with other anti-malarial drugs, such as mafloquine.

The number of artemisinin’mafloquine-resistant cases is on the rise along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to Kanchanaburi health workers.

“This year, 41 out of 207 cases of malaria proved resistant to artemisinin/mafloquine treatment,” said Wittaya Saiphromsud, head of the Vector Borne Disease Centre in Sai Yok district, Kanchanaburi, 125 km west of Bangkok.

Wittaya asks patients with a resistant strain of malaria to go for follow-up treatment at Sai Yok Hospital, but not all do. “Some people don’t want to pay the bus fare to the hospital. Others don’t have Thai identity papers so they are afraid of being harassed by police if they leave their village, and others are just disobedient,” Wittaya said.

By refusing follow-up treatment, malaria carriers increase the risk of transmitting via mosquitoes their drug-resilient malaria parasites to others, including across the border in Myanmar, where health services are rudimentary after decades of neglect.

The rise in drug-resistant malaria is also due to counterfeit or sub-standard anti-malaria drugs, usually made in India or China, in the remote border regions of Myanmar and Cambodia.

Full story: http://main.omanobse....om/node/120032

-- Oman DaIly Observer 2012-10-31

If someone is found making fake malaria meds, they are a mass murder. They should go after them with warplanes.

To make matters worse, along the Thai-Cambodian border in Thailands Northeast

there is also artemisinin resistant strains of malaria due mainly to fake antimalarial

drugs sold openly in Cambodia and Laos. The only alternative in this instance is

to hand out Doxycycline (Vibramycin) on a daily basis...somehow it messes with

the parasites reproductive system. One must take at least 250mg doxycycline

per day though and if one needs antibiotics in the future to fight an infection problems

may arise.

The drug resistant problem is also prevalent in many African nations too....

for the same reasons as here.

There is a natural course against malaria, it also can be used together with drugs,

Please follow link below.

http://voices.yahoo.com/natural-remedies-treatment-malaria-3336522.html

It may be of interest to readers to take a look at

http://bit.ly/QLedMc

This is a video created by UK companies based in Chiang Mai in regard to the Roll Back Malaria initiative as part of the RBM conference to be held in Sydney over the next week. Chiang Mai is the base for SE Asia media operations for malaria.

I agree with the previous writer those who make and sell counterfeit or weakened drugs are scum of the lowest order and part of the some of the biggest problems that will face the planet - resistance to drugs and antibiotics by illnesses. All this for short term gain and greed.This problem is compounded by the medical profession in Asia who often need educating on the correct use of drugs as opposed to financial gain.

In the early 90s I was given pasak bumi (Eurycoma longifolia jack). This was on Borneo and used there as a preventive treatment and treatment of malaria.

The efficiency of this plant (the root)has been studied and is being used in Malaysia, why not make use of it here? The plant grows in abundance, but obviously nobody knows.

There is a natural course against malaria, it also can be used together with drugs,

Please follow link below.

http://voices.yahoo....ia-3336522.html

What a crock of <deleted>! See how far this gets with people that can hardly afford a day off work let alone a diet of the fresh fruits, etc. subscribed. Might be nice for someone like a tourist (to try) but not hardly the indiginous (just scraping by) border hilltribes. Reality check!

And there you have -

"...The rise in drug-resistant malaria is also due to counterfeit or sub-standard anti-malaria drugs, usually made in India or China, in the remote border regions of Myanmar and Cambodia... "

More corruption - the constant "dis-ease" of Asia.

This is the reason I don't buy 'fake' tshirts or bags. I used to, like most tourists, until about 8 years ago when I read a book, saying that the Madrid terrorists (big bomb in train station, couple of hundred dead) had funded their activities by selling fake tshirts, watches and CD's etc on the streets of Madrid. That made me really back away from anything fake, but a couple of years ago, as an expat, I read a report (can't cite it I'm afraid) saying approximately 66% of anti-malarial drugs in SEA are either fake or of a quality not high enough to be effective. That means only a third of the anti malarial's being bought by the people can afford it least in the world are good. Who makes the fakes? The same people who make the DVD's and watches and bags and clothes. After that, my husband, who used to buy an occasional fake Nike or adidas tshirt also stopped buying them too.

All bugs eventually get around the various drugs or mutate. There are natural alternatives that do work, the bugs for some reason do not get around the plant based remedies. In the past posting natural cures here has met with the enthusiasm of beng told you are the guest butt at a prison gang bang. For those that are interested it is out there.

There is a natural course against malaria, it also can be used together with drugs,

Please follow link below.

http://voices.yahoo....ia-3336522.html

What a crock of <deleted>! See how far this gets with people that can hardly afford a day off work let alone a diet of the fresh fruits, etc. subscribed. Might be nice for someone like a tourist (to try) but not hardly the indiginous (just scraping by) border hilltribes. Reality check!

Wow!

You have a point re the poor folk but is it really helpful to make such a comment "What a crock of <deleted>!" on information that could be helpful to some people?

Not genuine/fake/copy is the nature of the beast, it is all down to money, recently I spoke to some shop owners/workers in the night bazaar (CM), they were pissed off because 'new police come from Bangkok, and have to pay 10,000 Baht' I asked if that was every week? Apparently it's every month, but the local police only charge 5,000 Baht.

I have not counted the shops/stalls offering 'genuine copies' but there have got to be at least 30, that's 150,000 Baht a month to be shared around, that plus some protection form the bars massage parlors and pharmacists adds up to a nice few Baht, and that folks is why there will always be substandard medicines etc for sale.

There is a natural course against malaria, it also can be used together with drugs,

Please follow link below.

http://voices.yahoo....ia-3336522.html

According to the yahoo page and a couple links at the bottom it seems you also

have a cure for "back pain" along with numerous posts on financial advice. Hmmmm.

Well I can honestly tell you that your "cure" for malaria is the biggest crock of shit

I have ever read in my life. And I guess you have never contracted malaria either.

Sure, fruits are good to eat and so is taking cinnamon however the cinnamon

does nothing and the fruit diet will just make an already dehydrated person more

dehydrated by increasing bowel movements. I have had malaria; both ovum

and falciparum a few times each and one is never really cured...i.e....the

plasmodium parasite count in ones body never actually reaches zero. That's

why a person who has had malaria and a few other diseases can never be a

blood donor except in case of emergency. You can transmit the dormant parasites

(in you) to another person (no resistance) via donating blood.

Tip for malaria vs flu symptoms...Malaria, dengue & the common flu start with the

same symptoms; fever, chills, aches in joints & muscles, general feeling like crap,

nausea, diarrehea etc. Difference is...is that the flu usually runs it's course

within a week and one starts to feel better. If one doesn't feel better one should

go to the hospital or a clinic and be tested for malaria and or dengue...because

instead of feeling better after a week as usual in the flu...with malaria and dengue

one feels worse and at this point one is in a critical phase in the development

of either malaria or dengue...the longer one waits to be tested the longer and

more difficult the cure.

Edited November 1, 201213 yr by sunshine51

There is a natural course against malaria, it also can be used together with drugs,

Please follow link below.

http://voices.yahoo....ia-3336522.html

According to the yahoo page and a couple links at the bottom it seems you also

have a cure for "back pain" along with numerous posts on financial advice. Hmmmm.

Well I can honestly tell you that your "cure" for malaria is the biggest crock of shit

I have ever read in my life. And I guess you have never contracted malaria either.

Sure, fruits are good to eat and so is taking cinnamon however the cinnamon

does nothing and the fruit diet will just make an already dehydrated person more

dehydrated by increasing bowel movements. I have had malaria; both ovum

and falciparum a few times each and one is never really cured...i.e....the

plasmodium parasite count in ones body never actually reaches zero. That's

why a person who has had malaria and a few other diseases can never be a

blood donor except in case of emergency. You can transmit the dormant parasites

(in you) to another person (no resistance) via donating blood.

Tip for malaria vs flu symptoms...Malaria, dengue & the common flu start with the

same symptoms; fever, chills, aches in joints & muscles, general feeling like crap,

nausea, diarrehea etc. Difference is...is that the flu usually runs it's course

within a week and one starts to feel better. If one doesn't feel better one should

go to the hospital or a clinic and be tested for malaria and or dengue...because

instead of feeling better after a week as usual in the flu...with malaria and dengue

one feels worse and at this point one is in a critical phase in the development

of either malaria or dengue...the longer one waits to be tested the longer and

more difficult the cure.

Sorry to hear that you got infected.

Thank you for the tips on how to recognise an infection and the difference between the flu and Denge or Malaria with the advice to seek medical help asap.

With regards to Natural Cures:

I believe that a person could possibly be cured by belief alone.

There are many stories of terminal cancer patients being sent home to die because the medics could do no more, but the patient believed he was cured and so it was.

The mind is the most powerful tool in the fight against disease.

In 2009 The New Scientist magazine ran an article about the Nobo effect (the opposite of Placebo) and they stated that doctors should be more careful what they tell patients about their illness.

They also said that the patients who had the most side effects from prescribed drugs were those who read the leaflet that came with them.

I didn't find the article I read but here is another one.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926701.600-why-the-placebo-effect-is-rewriting-the-medical-rulebook.html

Here's wishing you a cure

There is a natural course against malaria, it also can be used together with drugs,

Please follow link below.

http://voices.yahoo....ia-3336522.html

According to the yahoo page and a couple links at the bottom it seems you also

have a cure for "back pain" along with numerous posts on financial advice. Hmmmm.

Well I can honestly tell you that your "cure" for malaria is the biggest crock of shit

I have ever read in my life. And I guess you have never contracted malaria either.

Sure, fruits are good to eat and so is taking cinnamon however the cinnamon

does nothing and the fruit diet will just make an already dehydrated person more

dehydrated by increasing bowel movements. I have had malaria; both ovum

and falciparum a few times each and one is never really cured...i.e....the

plasmodium parasite count in ones body never actually reaches zero. That's

why a person who has had malaria and a few other diseases can never be a

blood donor except in case of emergency. You can transmit the dormant parasites

(in you) to another person (no resistance) via donating blood.

Tip for malaria vs flu symptoms...Malaria, dengue & the common flu start with the

same symptoms; fever, chills, aches in joints & muscles, general feeling like crap,

nausea, diarrehea etc. Difference is...is that the flu usually runs it's course

within a week and one starts to feel better. If one doesn't feel better one should

go to the hospital or a clinic and be tested for malaria and or dengue...because

instead of feeling better after a week as usual in the flu...with malaria and dengue

one feels worse and at this point one is in a critical phase in the development

of either malaria or dengue...the longer one waits to be tested the longer and

more difficult the cure.

Sorry to hear that you got infected.

Thank you for the tips on how to recognise an infection and the difference between the flu and Denge or Malaria with the advice to seek medical help asap.

With regards to Natural Cures:

I believe that a person could possibly be cured by belief alone.

There are many stories of terminal cancer patients being sent home to die because the medics could do no more, but the patient believed he was cured and so it was.

The mind is the most powerful tool in the fight against disease.

In 2009 The New Scientist magazine ran an article about the Nobo effect (the opposite of Placebo) and they stated that doctors should be more careful what they tell patients about their illness.

They also said that the patients who had the most side effects from prescribed drugs were those who read the leaflet that came with them.

I didn't find the article I read but here is another one.

http://www.newscient...l-rulebook.html

Here's wishing you a cure

Yes Laislica...the human mind is a very powerful entity, so powerful it's

been giving researchers a hard time when they try to figure out how

it works. And...many true stories abound concerning not only cancer

patients that have literally "cured themselves" when all else fails as

long as they have that will to live firmly in their mindset.

The "thing" is...is that with malaria, especially the falciparum strain,

one really does need that medication to kill off the parasites en-masse

since it is actually the parasites waste toxins that kill, not just the

parasites themselves. There's not much the brain can do when the

oxygen it needs to function is overloaded with toxins. The same

"thing" also happens with severe bacterial infections...you still need

the meds to kill the bacteria before said bacteria produces its toxic

waste in amounts that will kill you. Like every animal on this planet,

including human beings, parasites and bacterias need to eat and

after they feast they need to get rid of waste products....can't keep it

inside or ya die of toxic overload.

One nasty side to having had malaria is that it can return without having

been bitten by an infected mosquito again at any time in a prior malaria sufferer's life and it can return more than one time...this is not that rare.

And to compound this "return" researchers have not yet found out why

this happens.

So far they do know that not 100% of the parasites are killed off in

treatment and that the parasites do enter a dormant phase but they haven't

a clue to what activates the dormant parasites in the future. The treatment

if malaria returns is the sdame as the treatment when first contracted.

If you're a person who see's a doctor every time you get a cold or flu

then by all means keep doing that. I don't do it and recommend you don't

follow what I do either. However if your cold or flu doesn't get better

in the time frame that applies to you and if you know you're getting

worse....get to a hospital or clinic ASAP. The test is cheap and so

is the treatment if caught early. Sorry...but if your body is full of

malaria parasitic poop your brain won't be able to help you.

Edited November 2, 201213 yr by sunshine51

Thanks for that Sunshine,

A New Study Show How Bacteria Actually Synchronize Together to Harm You

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/28/New-Study-Show-How-Bacteria-Actually-Synchronize-Together-to-Harm-You.aspx

Makes me wonder is the parasites do something similar?