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Posted on 10th July 2014 |
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I am really starting to wonder where the BBC finds their science writers. This story about some recent research on malaria highlights the problem. In it is the statement "The study found that malaria-infected parasites could bury into bone marrow, where they escaped the immune system and caused disease." This is pure nonsense. Malaria is a disease caused by parasitic protozoans (a type of unicellular micro-organism) of the genus Plasmodium. It is carried by certain species of mosquito (also a parasite - maybe that is why the author, Helen Briggs, is confused). There is no sense in which there can be "malaria-infected parasites" in a host (human) body, since the plasmodium parasites are the disease. Is it any wonder that the general public is confused about science? | |