Deadly “Blackwater” Malaria – Smallpox Threats

By James Donahue

Blame it on global warming; there is a deadly new form of malaria spreading across Asia and the Middle East, and scientists worry that frozen corpses of smallpox victims, now thawing in the tundra regions of the far north, may release that deadly virus once more.

For those too young to remember, smallpox once rivaled malaria as the most deadly infectious disease ever to strike the human race. Now there is a threat of the old smallpox virus waking up from a long and frozen sleep, and a new form of malaria that kills within hours.

Even more alarming is that the new strain of malarial infection, caused by the parasite called plasmodium falciparum, has moved from Asia and Africa and it currently sweeping northward through Iraq, where five years of war and bombing has prevented doctors and hospitals to properly fight this disease.

This form of malaria can kill within 24 hours. The patient suffers severe destruction of red blood cells leading to kidney and liver failure. Symptoms are feeling chilled, then suffering a high fever, and sweating, with urine that is red or black in color. This is why it has the name “blackwater” fever. Doctors say this form of malaria is so deadly because it is resistant to treatment and brings on frequent and severe complications.

Journalists are failing to report the presence of Blackwater Fever, mostly because of political pressure, which is adding to the danger. American troops in Iraq cannot be vaccinated against malaria, but they may be carrying medicine to treat it if they are exposed through bites from the mosquito that carries the parasite. Thus Iraqi war veterans may be returning home as carriers of this deadly infection, which will crop up throughout the rest of their lives.

Even more frightening is that the malaria-carrying strain of mosquito, which has been a native of warmer climates, has been migrating northward into the United States. This mosquito was found as far north as Virginia in 2002. A bite from this mosquito of a person carrying malaria can make the insect a carrier, thus threatening all who are bitten by it from that time until the mosquito dies. The parasite lives in red blood cells.

The smallpox threat also is rearing its ugly head, after nearly 30 years since scientists believed it was eradicated from the planet. Only samples of the virus have remained stored in highly controlled conditions in various world laboratories, mostly to assure the capability of developing a new round of vaccines in the event of an unexpected outbreak. The disease is that deadly.

Unfortunately, the virus is hardy and survive for years in a frozen state. And several bodies of smallpox victims, buried in the frozen tundra across northern Asia and possibly Canada, have started to unthaw as the planet warms. There is a concern that anyone who accidentally comes in contact with a smallpox-infested body will reintroduce the disease.

The variola virus that causes smallpox causes fever, fatigue and pustules that leave deep scars on the skin. The disease is so deadly it left an estimated 300 million people in the 20^th Century before the World Health Organization conducted a global vaccination campaign. The last known case occurred in Ethiopia in the late 1970s.