topnaman | Malaria blog

Sonia Shah (no relation, check out her blog though) does not mince words. The author of a malaria history book, The Fever, wrote a scathing critique on the ridiculous anti-mosquito laser system and those who promote it  (thanks Russell/Sanjay).
I did see the ‘mosquito death ray’ invention a few months ago when it hit the web [...]

And I’ve made it another year… Finding the time to update the site certainly has not gotten any easier but writing is still just as fun. This is also a great excuse to look at some numbers.
Comparing some stats between last year and this one:

2008
2009
Total

Countries
79
106
120

Unique visitors
1,518
2,831
4,349

Page views
4,798
6,811
11,609

Posts
38
34
72

Words
11,157
6,244
17,401

The top twenty countries in terms of visitors:

1
United States
11
Germany

2
India
12
Indonesia

3
United [...]

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So this is what I’ve been writing about. Courtesy of Wordle.

Last February, I wrote my first post on the influence of the Gates Foundation in malaria. I started the blog primarily with the intention of improving my writing skills. I also hoped the process would help me better develop, organize, and communicate my thoughts related to malaria. Sometimes writing regularly has been hard, especially in [...]

Yes, it’s true – Bill Gates released a jar full of mosquitoes on the audience during his talk at the 2009 TED conference (some funny remarks in the comments here). He said, “Not only poor people should experience this.” Sure releasing mosquitoes is an unorthodox presentation tactic which gets your attention, but the idea, even [...]

A malaria control officer from India recently told me (in Hindi):
Falciparum kills people, vivax kills the nation
It’s an old anecdote which mirrored the classic malaria scenario in the country. In 1970, Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite species associated with higher mortality, comprised only 14 percent of all cases. Still, the parasite was responsible for many deaths [...]

The NY Times reports on the mosquito repelling activity of eucalyptol, a natural oil found in eucalyptus trees. Don’t get your hopes up – the concentration is too low to be effective. Commercial preparations for actual use are now available and they sure beat the smell of DEET.