 |
| Why is it that worldwide headlines greet Bill Gates announcement of his “vaccine” program while the biggest breakthrough in one of the major threats to life in much of the world remains unknown? |
by Thomas C. Mountain
(August 01, Asmara-Eritrea, Sri Lanka Guardian) A couple of years ago Bill Gates, then still “the richest man in the world”, announced that he was “donating” $10 billion to fund “vaccine research” for some of the worlds worst diseases.
About $1 billion of Bill Gates donation/tax deduction was ear marked for research to find a vaccine to prevent malaria which is the number one killer in Africa.
I live in Eritrea in the Horn of Africa and the government here has reduced malaria mortality by over 80% in the last decade. This is the biggest breakthrough in preventing malaria mortality in history yet there has yet to be a single story on this in any of the major international media.
This historic breakthrough has been accomplished in Eritrea by the use of good old fashioned public health methods, that tried and true science that is responsible for the major increase in longevity that took place in the 20th century. That's right, public health, meaning first of all, clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene has been the biggest breakthrough in human health in history, not antibiotics or vaccines or drugs of any sort. Yet Public Health is increasingly under attack in much of the western world.
Eritrea has developed a three pronged approach to preventing malaria mortality. First, the Eritrean Ministry of Health provides free insecticide treated mosquito nets to all of its population in the areas where malaria is endemic. Insecticide treated mosquito nets repel mosquitos, keeping them from biting a person while they are sleeping and come in contact with the mosquito net, something almost inevitable. Insecticide treated nets also prevent mosquitos from entering inside the nets via holes or gaps in the nets coverage.
The problem with insecticide treatment is it only lasts 3 months after which the net loses much of its effectiveness. The Eritrean Ministry of Health has instituted a mandatory re-treatment program for all of its population and if the people do not bring their nets in for re-treatment, the health teams go to the peoples homes and make them re-treat their nets.
The second part of the Health Ministry’s malaria program has been the establishment of community based medical clinics where the population can go to get a free blood test to determine what variety of malaria they may have and to get the proper treatment for it. Almost every village in the Eritrea malaria belt is within a few hours walk or ride from a community medical clinic and immediate treatment for those who have contracted malaria is now accessible for almost all of Eritrea's malaria belt residents.
The third part of the program is mosquito habitat eradication by filling in breeding sites and/or spraying insecticide on these areas.
These 3 simple, basic public health practices have resulted in the biggest breakthrough in malaria mortality prevention in history yet to this day there hasn't been a single major story covering this in any of the major media internationally.
Why is it that worldwide headlines greet Bill Gates announcement of his “vaccine” program while the biggest breakthrough in one of the major threats to life in much of the world remains unknown?
Maybe, just maybe, this is because Eritrea’s public health approach to preventing malaria mortality is not going to put tens of billions of dollars in the pockets of the drug company cartels, one of the most profitable industries in the world.
Malaria is caused by a parasite, actually a family of parasites, and has a history of quickly developing resistance to medication. After over three decades of research no one has been able to develop a “vaccine” for malaria or some form of permanent prevention. After so many have tried and failed in the past there are more than a few in the field of malaria research who doubt that any form of conventional “vaccine” will be found. They believe that even if some form of “vaccine” is developed by the drug companies malaria will most likely develop resistance to it and a new, patented “vaccine” will have to be bought by Africa’s poor every few years.
A “donation” of $1 billion or so to develop a malaria “vaccine” could turn into “a gift that keeps on giving” in the form of tens of billions of dollars in new, patented “vaccine” sales in Africa alone and Bill Gates, through his investment portfolio of drug company stocks will quietly pocket a continuos flow of African blood money. What Bill Gates “donation” amounts to a malaria drug addiction program for Africa’s people.
It is impossible to say just how many hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lives could have been saved in the two years or so since Bill Gates announced his multibillion dollar “donation” to vaccine research if just a small percentage of his “gift” had been spent on implementing the Eritrean model of malaria mortality prevention.
Bill Gates didn't get to be a multibillionaire by being a nice guy, far from it. He and his ilk are perfectly willing to sit back and wait for their “donation” to pay off while millions die in Africa, deaths that could almost be eliminated by implementing Eritrea’s historic breakthrough in malaria mortality prevention.
So don't believe Bill Gates has anyone else's best interests at heart when he donates $10 billion to “vaccine” research, far from it. And don't forget that in this world no good deed goes unpunished, as the UN inSecurity Council is once again considering how to implement new sanctions to try and cripple the Eritrean economy and hurt the Eritrean people.
Thomas C. Mountain is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain@yahoo.com
Post a Comment