Editing 51: Malaria

This was the forty-nineth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[54: Science]], and the next one was [[52: Secret Worlds]]. It was among the [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd.com|last eleven comics]] posted both on LiveJournal and on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] after the new site was launched. This comic wasn't published on the same day across both sites, but most of them shared the same posting day. It was released on LiveJournal on January 21, 2006, three days after originally being posted on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com]. See the [[#Trivia|triva section]] below.

This comic humorously considers {{w|pox parties}} as a means of preventing malaria. In these "parties", adults bring their children to deliberately expose them to a communicable disease to promote {{w|Immunity (medical)|immunity}}. For many communicable illnesses, individuals that contract the disease also develop an {{w|adaptive immune response}} against future infections, by producing {{w|antibodies}}. In some illnesses, such as {{w|chickenpox}}, this response can greatly reduce the seriousness of future infections. Furthermore, some illnesses, including chickenpox, are also thought to be less severe when the initial infection occurs in childhood, rather than adulthood. So, even though vaccinations remain a safer and more effective means of preventing severe disease, pox-parties might be held under the assumption that it is better for children to get a virus and develop antibodies while they are still young and the disease will be less severe.

# Unlike poxes, exposure to malaria does not necessarily reduce the risk or severity future infections. In fact, prior infections can actually increase the likelihood of getting malaria in the future. Unlike poxes, which are caused by {{w|virus|viruses}}, malaria is caused by {{w|protists}} (a type of microorganism) of the ''{{w|Plasmodium}}'' genus. Infection in humans begins when an infected female mosquito bites them and introduces the protists into the human's circulatory system via their saliva. At this point, ''Plasmodium'' travel to the human's liver where they mature and reproduce. After which, they typically return to the blood stream, where they can be picked up by a new mosquito vector. However, ''Plasmodium'' can also establish a dormant form in the liver, leading to a reactivation of malaria even after symptoms have resolved and the blood infection has been cleared. Thus, having a malaria party would not be a useful exercise, as attending such a party would only ''increase'' the likelihood that an individual would suffer significant illness later on.  

# As mentioned above, malaria is a {{w|mosquito-borne disease}}. Unlike poxes, which can be transmitted between people directly, the ''{{w|Plasmodium}}'' parasite that causes malaria is transmitted indirectly through a mosquito vector. While mosquitos do not suffer malarial disease themselves, they can become infected by ''Plasmodium'' when they drink the blood of a human with an active infection. Over the course of a week, the ''Plasmodium'' will then travel from mid-gut of the mosquito to the salivary glands, where it can be introduced to a new human host when the mosquito takes another blood meal. Since it takes approximately seven days for a mosquito to become infectious, the malaria party would have to go on for at least a week to facilitate the transmission of malaria between party-goers. Because parties typically only last over a matter of hours, holding a malaria party would be an ineffective way of transmitting malaria between attendees, to begin with. Furthermore, the party-goers would theoretically have to sit around in a room full of mosquitos to accomplish their goal, which also does not sound like 'very much fun.' It is possible that this is what is being represented by the black dots on the ground, which could be interpreted as confetti or the dead bodies of swatted mosquitos.  

Therefore, the humor of this comic comes from the fact that the party-goers did not anticipate that their plan would be an uncomfortable and ineffective means of simply transmitting malaria between them, let alone preventing it, under-scoring the absurdity of such a party.  

At the end of the 1990s, a study reported what would turn out to be made-up health threats from MMR-{{rw|vaccines}}, which created an {{w|MMR vaccine controversy}} and lower vaccination rates, even after they were exposed as false. This made {{w|pox parties}} more popular as the "natural alternative." However, even usually-"harmless" diseases like {{w|measles}} can (rarely) have complications and side-effects, up to and including death, which are by far more common and/or more severe than the actual health risks involved in vaccination. In the past 20 years, 2 Americans died from measles, both people with compromised immune systems. Also none, or late immunization, may create an immunization gap through which nearly extinct diseases can reenter a population (see e.g. {{w|Epidemiology of measles}}). If this gap can be closed (or made small enough), it is possible to make a disease extinct. This was actually successfully done with {{w|smallpox}}, and is now attempted with the {{w|poliovirus}} (Causing {{w|poliomyelitis}}, also known as infantile paralysis).

:We had a malaria party