As hard as I try, I can't seem to find a succint explanation of what we're actually contributing to when we give our CPU cycles to malariacontrol. As far as I understand it, the program is trying to find the best way to distribute anti-malarial drugs, but I'm not actually sure. I'd love some clarification on the subject, or simply a link to a thread which explains this. Thanks.
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There are quite a few, read some of the "status update" threads in this forum, i think maybe the september 2010 has a lot of info in it. Usually the first post is by one of the scientists running this project.
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As hard as I try, I can't seem to find a succint explanation of what we're actually contributing to when we give our CPU cycles to malariacontrol. As far as I understand it, the program is trying to find the best way to distribute anti-malarial drugs, but I'm not actually sure. I'd love some clarification on the subject, or simply a link to a thread which explains this. Thanks.
The short version is that they come with an idea about a drug, or combination of drugs, that either has worked in the past or they think might work, and then design a computer simulation. We then test that simulation for them and they then field test the most promising possibilities. Malaria is NOT just thing, there are like 18 strains of it. A person could get one, two or any combination of the 18 or even all 18 strains in their lifetime. If you get strain #1 will drug A work, what if you previously had strain #15 and #16, does drug A still work? What if you an infant, a child or an adult, what drug and what dosage, etc, etc, etc is the most effective? These are all the kinds of problems our pc's work on. The time to return a unit is short here, very short in some cases, this is because what we do here translates DIRECTLY to the field work. If your pc finds a possible positive outcome and it is confirmed, it could be in the field in a very short time!!
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Malariacontrol.net has for a while been simulating more than treatments. Part of the idea is that, given an existing situation with a health system of some given effectiveness and maybe some other existing interventions against malaria such as insecticide-treated bed-nets, someone can ask "is it most effective to spend so much on bed-nets, or is it likely to be more effective in our situation to spend the same amount on treating walls with insecticide, reducing the number of breeding sites anopheles mosquitoes can use, or generally improving the health system?" The answer to this actually depends on whether the goal is to eliminate malaria in the region in question or whether, when elimination is not possible in the short term, the goal is to reduce the burden of disease (most significantly deaths; often we calculate DALYs) as much as possible.
We can also use the simulator more generally to estimate how effective a new intervention will be, for example vaccines, long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, or durable wall linings, as well as to estimate the effects of resistance (both mosquito resistance to insecticide and Plasmodium falciparum resistance to antimalarials).
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