Haitian anger - rage after U-17 football team sent home

[Farmah]

You support which decision? The one to send back the entire team to Haiti? Were they given the choice to send back only the three youths identified? Couldn't the Haitian delegation be asked to fly in three youths to replace the ones carrying the malaria?

We fumbled the ball, period!

[Sickko]

The facts are Farmah, three members of the delegation, they did not say whether players or officials were confirmed to have Malaria while others also showed symptoms of the illness... what are you going to do wait till the entire delegation have it and in the process infect the entire hotel they are staying in?

[Farmah]

Mo, I spoke with my coz regarding this. She was (for about 10 years) the doctor in charge of infectious disease and transplant rejection at Jackson Memorial Hopital in Miami, Florida. She has been involved with many volunteer works, including travelling to Haiti a few times. According to her, the only reason they would've isolated anyone presented with malaria would be to prevent that person from being bitten and then the offending insect bite someone else and transmit the disease. However, she believes that isolation is rarely done in those instances.

She heard of the story and everything that happened. She basically made these points:
a) The Hatian doctors should not have sent the youths who were infected.
b) Someone infected with malaria is not in a good physical shape to compete in a soccer tournament and, hence, others should've been selected to replace them.
c) On a sensitive and diplomatic level Jamaica dropped the ball.
d) Urgent medical care was required but isolation and mal-handling of the situation was unnecessary.

[Farmah]

No I wouldn't wait. However, malaria is easily curtailed with prophylaxis medications such as Chloroquine, Metloquine, Doxycycline Qualaquin etc.
People travel into malaria infected areas quite frequently and all they do is take one of these meds for the duration of the trip. That said, I understand the panic but can't come to grips with the handcuff business.

[Mosiah]

Clearly, we still are ignorant about malaria. Refer to my earlier post.

"infect the entire hotel" - how? the players would bite the guests?

[Mosiah]

What do you mean by you understand the panic?!? Did we panic when we had malaria cases in Jamaica just a few weeks ago? What, Haitian malaria is the contagious type?!?!?

[Mosiah]

The arrogance! Baugh does not understand sh#$%!

[Farmah]

In my estimation, the quarantine and reported handcuffing was the result of a panic. Someone once said that "a little knowledge is dangerous." I think that the people who made the decisions were illinformed...again leading to panic. That's what I want to believe! I would hate to believe that the decisions were borne of a descriminatory nature.

[Mosiah]

Sensible doctors should have made the decision.

[Farmah]

True ting Sah!!!

[Sickko]

No Mosiah but if mosquitoes bit them then bit others it could spread easily

[Time]

In my estimation, the quarantine and reported handcuffing was the result of a panic. Someone once said that "a little knowledge is dangerous." I think that the people who made the decisions were illinformed...again leading to panic. That's what I want to believe! I would hate to believe that the decisions were borne of a descriminatory nature.

The coach left the hospital and was getting upset so they had the right to handcuff and arrest him. Perhaps they should have tried talking it over.

[Muadib]

damn Labourites !

[Sickko]

and if he did not speak English?

[Time]

Life cycle
The parasite's secondary (intermediate) hosts are humans and other vertebrates. Female mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus are primary hosts and transmission vectors. Young mosquitoes first ingest the malaria parasite by feeding on an infected human carrier and the infected Anopheles mosquitoes carry Plasmodium sporozoites in their salivary glands. A mosquito becomes infected when it takes a blood meal from an infected human. Once ingested, the parasite gametocytes taken up in the blood will further differentiate into male or female gametes and then fuse in the mosquito's gut. This produces an ookinete that penetrates the gut lining and produces an oocyst in the gut wall. When the oocyst ruptures, it releases sporozoites that migrate through the mosquito's body to the salivary glands, where they are then ready to infect a new human host. This type of transmission is occasionally referred to as anterior station transfer.[31] The sporozoites are injected into the skin, alongside saliva, when the mosquito takes a subsequent blood meal.
Only female mosquitoes feed on blood, thus males do not transmit the disease. The females of the Anopheles genus of mosquito prefer to feed at night. They usually start searching for a meal at dusk, and will continue throughout the night until taking a meal. Malaria parasites can also be transmitted by blood transfusions, although this is rare.[32]