Malaria is one of the world’s largest killers of human beings. In 2008 there were between 190 million and 311 million reported cases of malaria with between 708,000 and 1.003 million people killed by malaria; with the majority of those deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.

A new study published in the November 11, 2011 issue of PLoS ONE reports about a new line of attack against malaria that is showing real promise.

Discovered by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshive University this new antimalarial agent is proving effective at clearing infections caused by malaria parasite by simply starving the parasites to death.

This “starving” can be done because of a weakness that the researchers found with strain of the parasite most commonly associated with severe infections and death – the Plasmodium falciparum (P.falciparum) strain. The “Achilles heel” as the researchers call it is that the P.falciparum can’t synthesize a vital building block for making DNA called purines.

Instead the parasite makes these purines by indirect methods by using an enzyme called purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) to make the needed purine precursor called hypoxanthine. This is the point that the researchers have targeted as the weak point and by using the drug BCX4945 they kill the parasites by starving them of the purines they need.

The transition-state analog BCX4945 was chosen for this study because of its high affinity for both P. falciparum PNP and human PNP (which the parasite obtains from the red blood cells it infects). Since PNP is abundant in mammalian red blood cells and those cells are constantly replaced, BCX4945 is toxic only to the parasite and not its mammalian hosts. (Two of Dr. Schramm’s other PNP inhibitors — one for T-cell cancers, the other for gout — are being evaluated in clinical trials.)

“Inhibiting PNP differs from all other current approaches for treating malaria,” said Dr. Schramm. “For that reason, BCX4945 fits well with the current World Health Organization protocols for malaria treatment, which call for using combination-therapy approaches against the disease.”

via Science Daily

image courtesy of Doctors Without Borders

Starving the malaria parasite to death shows real promise as cure is a post from: The Inquisitr

A 3-year-old boy in France was killed this week when his father placed him in a washing machine and locked him inside.

The boy’s father, 33,  placed his naked body in the washer as a punishment for flushing drawings that belonged to the boys classmate down a toilet.

The abusive father Christophe Champenois allegedly turned on the cold wash cycle to teach his child a lesson.

The boys mother Charlene Champenois, 25, realized what was occurring and ran her son to a neighbor’s home, claiming initially that the boy fell down the stairs.

According to MyFox Washington it was the couple’s 5-year-old daughter who told neighbors the truth about the incident. The littler girl also said her brother had also been locked inside a closet on various occasions, sometimes for hours at a time.

The father was arrested and charged with murder of a minor and the mother was arrested and charged shortly thereafter with failure to prevent a crime and for failure to assist a person in danger.

Speaking about the incident neighbor Alice told French news agency Le Parisien:

“I took him in my arms like a broken doll …  I felt the last beat of his heart. Charlene didn’t move. She was red all over. She didn’t understand he was dead.”

The whereabouts of the children are not known at this time.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

Toddler Dies After Father Locks Him In Washing Machine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Diabetes in children is a growing problem in today’s society as we see an ever increasing number of children becoming obese and the Centers for Disease Control estimating that approximately 2.5 million children in the US qualify for diabetes screening.

The problem is that a new study is showing that the long accepted test, Hemoglobin A1c, that measures longer-term blood sugar levels, without requiring that patients fast overnight, is not an accurate way to test for diabetes in children.

In fact the lead author of the study, Joyce M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., and pediatric endocrinologist at U-M’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital says that the current test fails to identify two out of three children who participated in the study.

While the American Academy of Pediatrics hasn’t endorsed the the use of the Hemoglobin A1c test there is  the concern that if they do more providers will use these testing methods and thereby potentially missing a large number of children who could have diabetes.

Researchers intend to use their data to drive future recommendations about screening for diabetes.

“We are currently studying whether the promising nonfasting tests, including the 1-hour glucose challenge test or the random glucose, could be used in combination with clinical characteristics to better identify which children have prediabetes or diabetes,” says Lee.

via Science Daily

Preferred testing method by American Diabetes Association fails detecting diabetes in kids is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re children score high on IQ tests or excel easily in school based learning activities there’s a good chance they will smoke marijuana and possibly try other drugs later in life according to a new survey.

The new study took a look at 8,000 British citizens born in 1970 and they found that five-year-olds who scored high IQ scores were more likely to try marijuana by age 16, while high IQ scores by the age of 30 were 46% more likely to try various amphetamines (in the last year) and 65% more likely to have tried ecstasy at least once.

The study also examined women at the age of 30 and found that they were twice as likely to have used marijuana or cocaine in the past 12-months.

In the study one researcher revealed:

“High-IQ individuals have also been shown to score highly on tests of stimulation seeking and openness to experience.”

The researcher hypothesizes that “illegal drugs are better at fulfilling a desire for novelty and stimulation.”

The study also found that many high IQ scoring individuals may turn to drugs as they become bored or get teased by their less intelligent peers.

I recall in college that many of my friends with photographic memories and perfect grade point averages partook in drug fueled nights, at least on the surface that’s enough proof in my mind to validate this type of study.

Do you know anyone with a high IQ who tends to turn their attention towards drug use when they are bored? Do these results surprise you?

Children With High IQ Scores Get High Later In Life [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Autism is affecting an ever growing number of children it seems and one set of researchers have discovered an interesting link between the number of nerve cells found in some children and autism.

In some research that has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found that autistic children have about 67% more nerve sells in a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex than children without autism.

The prefrontal cortex is that part of the brain that is responsible for processing things like social skills, communication, cognitive functions, and language; which are all the areas in which autistic children show abnormal development.

This came as a surprise as scientists have assumed that deficits in the social skills of autistic children are typically linked to less nerve cells, or tissue. Instead they found that after studying the brains of seven autistic boys, between the ages of 2 and 16, who had passed away the opposite was the case.

As well the researchers found that the excess of neurons in the prefrontal cortex were not formed after birth but rather during early development in utero. What this suggests to scientists is that the changes responsible for autism are happening a lot sooner than they thought.

The lead researcher Courchesne concluded, “Knowing that we have a specific type of defect that occurs very early in development really helps us to focus and sharpen the next steps in research to determine what caused the excess and hopefully find new treatments that can help children and their families cope better with the symptoms of autism.”

via Know About Health.

Autistic children might have too many nerve cells is a post from: The Inquisitr

Think of the kids and dump all that soda from the fridge right now before they go all Natural Born Killer on you.

Well, okay maybe it’s not that bad but according to a new study conducted by David Hemingway and Sara Solnick where they followed 1,878 Boston high school students and kept track of their soft drink consumption they found that students that drank more than 5 non-diet soda a week were 9-15% more likely to turn aggressive.

They go on to state in the paper that heavy use of carbonated non-diet soft drinks was significantly associated with carrying a gun or knife, and that violence towards their peers, family members. Now the two researchers didn’t come right out and say that over consuming soda drinks leads to violent behavior but they did note that the “soda-violence” boost remained after factoring out things like race, age, body mass, tobacco  and drug use.

Now before you fall off your chair laughing yourself silly, which I have already done twice while trying to write this post, the researchers say that there is still a lot more studying to be done before they can come to any conclusive conclusion when it comes to soda influenced violence; but you can read what they have found out so far over here.

via Geekosystem

All that soda could be turning our kids violent says new study is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yesterday, Inquisitr reported some gloomy findings of the U.S. Census, including 36.2 million Americans living below the poverty line in 2010. The figure represents 15.1% of the population and an increase from 14.3% in 2009.

Looking deeper into the Census Report, the national law enforcement group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids stressed that almost 1 million additional children under the age of 18 fell into poverty in 2010 and that for the first time, over 25 percent of children under the age of 6 now live in poverty.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is composed of more than 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors in 50 states. They expressed their concern that the rising child poverty rates could increase the risk of crime in the future.

Though short-term increases in poverty do not cause outright increase in crime rate, a US Surgeon General report said that growing up in poverty is more closely linked to later involvement in violent crime than having abusive parents or watching violent television programs.

So, how do we combat this situation? Miriam Rollin, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids’ National Director, pointed out:

“Investments in high-quality early care and education programs are especially important today with reports that almost 1 million new children have fallen into poverty. Research shows that enabling at-risk kids to attend these high-quality programs returns more than $10 in benefits for every $1 invested over the long term, with much of the savings coming from reduced crime and lower prison costs. Law enforcement leaders and crime survivors across America believe that we must make programs benefiting the youngest children our top priority to avoid increases in crime in the future.”

There is no doubt that high-quality early education can steer the direction of our underprivileged children. The ball is in the hands now of the state and federal leaders. Would they care?

25% of Children in the U.S. Under Age 6 Live in Poverty (Could Cause Increase in Crime) is a post from: The Inquisitr

Michigan To Track Childhood Obesity Through Medical Visits Directory is a post from: The Inquisitr

It never, ever, fails.

It happened with television, it happened with video games, and now it’s social networks.

Yes, says a survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (pdf), using social network sites makes teenagers more likely to use age-restricted and illegal drugs.

In the preamble to the results the authors write that on any typical day 70 percent of 12-to-17-year olds spend anywhere from a minute or three to hours on social networking sites whereas 30 percent don’t. It is those 70 percent that parents need to be really concerned about because these sites put the children at an increased risk of smoking, drinking, and drug use.

WTF?!? (right now that sound you are hearing is me banging my head against my desk).

The really scary part about this is that the people behind this study are down right serious, this isn’t any April Fool’s joke.

Please tell me if you can see any of the logic behind crap like this stuff that is right from their report:

Compared to teens who in a typical day do not spend any time on a social networking site, those
who do are:

• Five times likelier to use tobacco (10 percent vs. two percent).
• Three times likelier to use alcohol (26 percent vs. nine percent).
• Twice as likely to use marijuana (13 percent vs. seven percent).

No wonder–with what’s on Facebook and other social networking sites for teens to see:

• Half of the teens who spend any time on social networking sites in a typical day have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on these sites.
• Even 14 percent of those teens who spend no time on social networking sites in a typical day have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on these sites.

Compared to teens who have not seen such pictures, teens who have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on Facebook or other social networking sites are:

• Three times likelier to use alcohol.
• Four times likelier to use marijuana.
• More than twice as likely to think they’ll try drugs in the future.
• Four times likelier to be able to get marijuana, almost three times likelier to be able to get controlled prescription drugs without a prescription and more than twice as likely to be able to get alcohol in a day or less.
• Much likelier to have friends and classmates who use illegal drugs and abuse controlled prescription drugs.

Especially troubling–and alarming–are that almost half of the teens who have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on Facebook and other social networking sites first saw such pictures when they were 13 years of age or younger; more than 90 percent first saw such pictures when they were 15 or younger. These facts alone should strike Facebook fear into the hearts of parents of young children.

Talk about Dr. Phil material.

I’m sorry but anyone with half a brain should be able to see this for the garbage that it is; but I feel sorry for the kids who’s parents will see this as some headline on a website or in the mainstream press and get all up in arms and start spouting the typical “but think of the kids” as they mass mail their Congress person to do something. We all know what happens then – more mass stupidity.

via Geek are Sexy

A moronic survey says social networks will cause teens to do drugs is a post from: The Inquisitr

From Dr. Phil to anyone looking to make a name for themselves when railing against the Internet the one subject they all like to pick on is cyber-bullying and how it is destroying our children. However they aren’t the only one’s in our school systems that are having to deal with what can be the traumatic effects of cyber-bullying.

A new study out from Plymouth University in England has some pretty bad news on this front because they have found that more than a third of teachers have been abused online. While the majority of abuse, 72%, is coming from students it seems that parents can’t stay out of it as 26% of them are abusing teachers online.

“This parental abuse is something we haven’t come across before,” said Prof Andy Phippen, the author of the report.

A total of 35% of teachers said that they had been victims of online bullying — 60% of which were women.

Most of the abuse comes through chat on social networks, but there are many people setting up Facebook groups to target certain teachers. There are also cases of videos being posted on YouTube and reatemyteacher.com has always been a popular venue for abuse.

After being the victim of cyber abuse from a parent using social media sites, one headmistress suffered a breakdown and was left feeling suicidal.

Another teacher was treated for depression and suicidal thoughts after a social media-induced questioning from police.

via TechVibes

One parent, who runs an abuse blog aimed at teachers, didn’t see anything wrong with what they were doing, and according to one teacher this is just something that they have to “live with”.

Sorry but this is totally wrong. How can you possibly expect the teachers that are trying so hard (and yes there are some) to teach our children to give their jobs 100% when they have to face crap like this.

That cyber-bullying going on against our kids? Well they’re not the only story here. is a post from: The Inquisitr

I can honestly say that I I have never snooped in my wife’s email inbox but it helps that she doesn’t have one I guess, or that I learned at a very early age that you venture into a woman’s private domain at your own peril. Heck I don’t even go in her purse or wallet however it seems that this isn’t a feeling shared by everyone these days.

According to a new study from the folks at Retrevo you guys and gals out there sure do want to know what your spouses are writing or talking to.

• 30% of all men in the study check the email or call history of their spouse
• 35% of women do the same thing

Married couples are even worse

• 32% of men do the snooping
• 41% of women do the snooping

When it comes to their kids it seems that 37% of parents have no problem snooping in on their kid’s online life.

As for tracking spouses and family members by using their phones GPS feature, most people say they would never sink this low (68%), but a good number of respondents (20%) did say they would use this feature if they became suspicious of their spouses or partners. When it comes to their kids, though, most parents have very little issues with tracking them, though. Just under 60% of parents would happily use GPS technology to track their offspring.

via SiliconFilter

Isn’t this such a trusting world we live in.

images courtesy of SiliconFilter

Wow, there sure a lot of snoopy spouses out there, at least when it comes to email is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay, so it’s not an iPad per se but you got to admit that it’s a pretty clever idea and the perfect geeky toy to start your kid off with, at least when they aren’t playing with the real thing I guess.

It’s called the anaPad and is a magnetic white board made in the exact size of the iconic iPad that comes with an erasable marker and a bunch of app-style magnets.

You can order your very own for $28.00 on the anaPad page on Etsy.

via Design Milk

The perfect iPad for your two-year-old is a post from: The Inquisitr

Genetically modified food stuffs are going to be big business and showing up in places that we wouldn’t think of, much like these cows in China that have modified to produce milk that apparently is identical to the human variety.

As well, according to the scientists at China’s Agricultural University, this milk has the same immune-boosting and antibacterial qualities as human breast milk.

The transgenic herd of 300 was bred by inserting human genes into cloned cow embryos which were then implanted into surrogate cows.

The technology was similar to that used to produce Dolly the sheep.

The milk is still undergoing safety tests but with government permission it will be sold to consumers as a more nutritious dairy drink than cow’s milk.

Workers at the university’s dairy farm have already tasted the milk, and say it is sweeter and stronger than the usual bovine variety.
“It’s good,” said worker Jiang Yao. “It’s better for you because it’s genetically modified.”

via Sky News

Uhm .. no. Really we are going to go down this road when we have no idea of the long term effects of any of these genetically modified food stuffs, other than it is making companies like Monsanto filthy rich.

Running low on breast milk check with your genetically modified cows is a post from: The Inquisitr

There are disgusting people in this world but when a mother turns around and tries to sell off her own daughter’s virginity they should be sent to a special kind of hell.

Police in Salt Lake City found this out the hard way when they charged Felicia Rae McClure with aggravated sex abuse of a child and felony sexual exploitation of a minor for trying to sell her 13-year-old daughter’s virginity to some dude by the name of “Don” for the price of $10,000.

The woman’s boyfriend reported observing several text messages between the woman and a man named Don discussing sex acts between him and her daughter, according to charges filed in 3rd District Court.

The mother admitted to police she had made an arrangement with Don to have sex with her daughter in exchange for $10,000, the charges state. She also said the man had taken her and her daughter to Victoria Secret to model lingerie and also modeled lingerie at home.

Prosecutors say the woman also sent photos of her daughter wearing lingerie to another man named Will, who was going to pay for the photos.

via Deseret News

image courtesy of ABC 4 News

Price of a 13-year-old girl’s virginity these days? $10,000 says her mother. is a post from: The Inquisitr

As Facebook continues to dominate the social network realm, one of the sticking points is the number of little kids who sneak on to the site using fake ages, as well as the general debate over online safety and kids.

Nowadays, it’s relatively easy for a parent to monitor a child’s internet activity, and the number of gathering spots on the web that are kid-safe are is pretty high. And while elementary and grade school kids are currently barred from creating Facebook profiles, Mark Zuckerberg admits he’d like to open the service to ankle-biters.

At a Senate Commerce Committee sitting, Zuckerberg was confronted about the “dangers” posed to kids by Facebook use, but he did not waver from the stance that exposing kids to technology is a net good:

“[Allowing kids under 13 on Facebook] will be a fight we take on at some point. My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age,” he said.

The media predictably is citing “cyberbulling” and predators as possible risks of underage Facebook use, but both risks are seriously minimized by sufficient parental involvement. Do you think the service should be open, at least in part, to kids? What about something like adding them under a parent’s account, so parents could monitor their kids’ accounts similar to the way pages are administrated?

Would you let your third-grader on Facebook to talk to Grandma or keep in touch with friends?

Should kids under 13 be on Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg approves is a post from: The Inquisitr

Your kid who spends a lot of time parked at the computer might just be dealing with a spate of FarmVille requests, an upcoming Consumer Reports report has found.

According to the watchdog magazine, the site is crawling with millions of users under the site’s minimum age of 13, and one in three of those ankle-biters is actually under the age of 10. The report also indicates that out of the site’s many under-10-years-old members, less than one in five were Facebook friends with a parent.

Consumer Reports listed some of the findings, which predictably attempt to invoke the cyberbullying panic:

• Of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year, 7.5 million—or more than one-third—were younger than 13 and not supposed to be able to use the site.
• Among young users, more than 5 million were 10 and under, and their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents.
• One million children were harassed, threatened, or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying on the site in the past year.

Facebook uses birthdate verification to weed out rugrats, but the crafty youngsters have concocted a way around that by lying about their age. Credit card verification was mentioned as a possible barrier to entry, which seems like a bit of a giant accident waiting to happen, as well as kind of classist and prohibitive and generally a stupid way to determine if someone is over the age of 13.

Have you gotten or allowed Facebook accounts for your kids? Do you think that there is much danger lurking on the site for children in general?

Millions of kids under 10 on Facebook, says Consumer Reports is a post from: The Inquisitr

Fussy babies may be less likely to shake off their “fussiness” as they age, according to a study in the April 20th issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Excessive crying, sleeping or feeding difficulties could be markers of a propensity to develop Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or “externalizing problems” such as tantrums or aggressive behavior. According to the study, the higher instances of regulatory problems were, the more likely children were to present with the behavioral issues later on. The studies authors highlighted early intervention to address the issues in infants and children:

“Our findings highlight the need for prospective follow-up studies of regulatory disturbed infants and require reliable assessments of crying, sleeping or feeding problems… The evidence from this systematic review suggests that those with persisting regulatory problems in families with other problems may require early interventions to minimize or prevent the long-term consequences of infant regulatory problems.”

Between 1987 and 2006, the study measured more than 16,000 children, 1,935 of whom had regulatory problems.

[Image]

Baby fussiness linked to ADHD, behavioral problems is a post from: The Inquisitr

I get that the world can be a dangerous place and that giving guns to kids isn’t a good idea but then neither is giving them a stun gun. I mean really, what parent in their right mind would think that giving their child some toy stun gun is a good idea.

After all it’s not like it can do any damage other than tickle some other child’s funny bone, but it does give a whole new meaning to poking your eye out with a stick if of course that stick happens to be this Police Electric Baton Shock Tricky Toy.

C’mon let’s get real. If you really want your kids to get done and really protect themselves at least give them the real thing.

via DVICE

[Moron Dept.] Kids with real toy stun guns.Seriously. is a post from: The Inquisitr

However that hasn’t stopped companies from coming out with equally stupid 3D glasses as witnessed by this Transformer helmet for kids. Let’s not think about the fact that there are serious questions about the safety of children watching 3D anything but instead run out and slap down $10 for one of these stupid things:

via DVICE

[Moron Dept.] Transformer 3D glasses .. err .. mask is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new study from Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life claims that videogames can help parents and kids bond – particularly fathers and daughters.

For her study, author Sarah M. Coyne Ph.D. polled 287 kids aged between 11 and 16 and their parents, asking them questions about various videogame, behavioral, and family-related issues. The goal? To see how co-playing games affected child/parent relationships. Turns out, games can help a parent/child relationship really blossom! Especially if we’re talking dads and daughters.

While boys showed no dramatic improvements in positive behaviour, girls who played games with Dad were better behaved, less aggressive, and demonstrated decreased levels of internalizing, a process that can lead to depression.

“When parents play video games with their daughters, they may be sending a myriad of messages. First, parents may show that they are willing to engage in an activity that is important to daughters. Second, playing video games can represent quality time between a daughter and a parent, especially when such play involves conversation between parent-child.”

Coyne goes on to argue that boys may not be as strongly influenced by parental involvement because they play more games, and more often than not with friends. But why dads? Well, one reason is that not many mothers admitted to playing games. Co-author Laura M. Padilla-Walker attempts to explain:

“We’re guessing it’s a daddy-daughter thing, because not a lot of moms said yes when we asked them if they played video games. Co-playing is probably an indicator of larger levels of involvement.”

Also of interest: the good vibes were only felt with adolescent females when the parents joined in on games aimed at younger players, such as Mario Kart, Mario Brothers, Wii Sports, Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

[Journal of Adolescent Health [PDF], via Kotaku]

Videogames help father/daughter bonds, says Science is a post from: The Inquisitr