this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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Depends if there's malarial.
We have tech that can solve most of the dangers, except malaria.
We have drugs and plants that can be taken as a prophalactic against Malaria.
In fact, the colonists never could penetrate the tropic and subtropics well until they found out about quinine from the peruvian natives. They took it all the time to ward off the parasite.
Malaria can be treated with those same drugs an plants as well. Artemisia and Mexican Prickly Poppy both work.
Yeah, I meant we don't have a vaccine.
And those prophylactics have a lot of negative side effect's. We're certainly better than before, but Malaria still kills a lot of people today
I know quinine has some side effects, not sure about mexican prickly poppy or artemisia, could look it up.
There is a malaria vaccine, it just isn't that effective, I think there are more than one. 30% effective if I recall, and even then it might just have lessened the effects and not prevented the infection. I want to say Sanofi but I don't recall.
As to the deaths, it really matters what strain of malaria, there are a lot, and also what they use to treat it. Because using drugs, the parasite gets immune to it, especially when they don't use them in combination with another antimalarial to prevent resistance forming, which I believe is one reason some parts of Africa have up to half of kids with brain damage from this fucking parasite, (it breaks from liver into bloodstream and colonizes the brain and the body lights us with fever over 106 degrees, which is brain damage.)
But the plants that treat it, they produce several related drugs around 10% of alkaloids or active ingredient, then a dozen or more at 1% or so, 80% being the main compound. Ie quinine bark the main one is chloroquinine or whatever. Anyway, prevents resistance from forming like with just the isolated chloroquinine, of which malaria is mostly immune to now.