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