TV presenter Charlie Webster in coma with malaria in Rio

BBC ^ | 18 Aug 2016

[DUMBGRUNT]

More than a few of my RVN buddies picked up a case of malaria. Yes we all took the pills.

One friend became very sick about two months after discharge. He went a few local Physicians, no luck! He said the Doc at the VA knew the minute he walked in!!

[Mr. Douglas]

This is crazy! Don’t they have DDT down there?

[Jane Long]

Terrible.

I’ve been wondering how our athletes and news crews have been protected...or, if they’ve been protected.

Were there giant nets over the arenas and news platforms? Ha!

[Ancesthntr]

Best wishes for her quick and complete recovery.

But one has to wonder what would possess someone from a First World nation with virtually no chance of having been exposed - and therefore no chance to build up resistance - to diseases like malaria and whatever else she is suffering from. With due respect to her and her family, and my sincere wish that she recover, I think that she did this to herself. There are less dangerous means of giving to, or helping to raise money for, charity.

[uncitizen]

It’s malaria, not zika, right?

[eyeamok]

Rachel Carson strikes again!

[DUMBGRUNT]

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

Helen Keller

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Brazil is a beautiful, large country, and depending on where she was biking, the concept of ‘spraying for mosquitos’ would be a joke. Great swaths of Brazil are rainforest, and wild. If you've ever flown over the Amazon, you are amazed by how huge/wide it is (can be almost 25 miles wide during the rainy season), and it is surrounded by vegetation.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Don’t they have DDT down there?

uhhh.....it's been banned worldwide. Thanks to the propaganda work of a local Pittsburgher named Rachel Carson (so of course the local Democrat hacks go out and name a bridge after her)

[wastoute]

I have actually seen several patients with malaria. Some of the sickest one will ever see and if you have seen it once you never forget!

[sailor76]

One friend became very sick about two months after discharge.

Sounds like he had the Vivax strain with a 6mo+ incubation period. I've had it too. It also sounds like the reporter has the much more dangerous falciparum strain with a week or two incubation and if left untreated can kill you in a few days.

[Mr. Douglas]

Well, then those that die gave their lives for the cause of preserving whatever DDT was threatening. War is hell, and all that.

[sailor76]

if you have seen it once you never forget!

And if you're ever had it, you'll never forget. That said, the recurring attacks get less severe over time to the point where they're just an excuse to drink too many Gin & Tonics. :)

[laplata]

A buddy of mine didn’t take his pills and got malaria after he was discharged. I think we had to take the pills for 21 days after leaving Nam but can’t remember.

[anton]

Thank Rachel Carson for this and a million or two other human deaths.

[sailor76]

gave their lives for the cause of preserving whatever DDT was threatening

IIRC it was the eggs of some bird.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The issue when they banned DDT was the claim that it caused the shells of eggs to weaken and that bird species were going extinct as a result.

Later evidence is that not unlike the Climate Change crowd they pimped the data (choosing birds in areas with calcium deficient diets to study).

[Enchante]

It’s worse than that in numbers, there are more than one million deaths per YEAR due to malaria worldwide (most in Africa)....

Assuming estimates are accurate that proper ongoing use of DDT could have eliminated most deaths from malaria, Rachel Carson and her gang have allowed 10s of millions of preventable deaths in the past 50+ years.

[Enterprise]

[wastoute]

Glad to hear it.