• Question: if you could heal any disease what would it be?

    Asked by anon-181898 on 16 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Ashley Akbari

      Ashley Akbari answered on 16 Jun 2018:

      I think we would all like to be able to heal all diseases if we could, but if I personally had to pick one I wish we could find a cure for some of the neurological conditions like Dementia or Alzheimer’s

    • Photo: Claire Donald

      Claire Donald answered on 17 Jun 2018:

      My job is working on diseases spread by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are classed as the most deadly animal on the planet because they are responsible for killing thousands of people of every year. They can spread diseases cause by bacteria, viruses or parasites but if I can only pick 1 to stop, I would pick malaria.

      Malaria is caused by a parasite which is spread to people when mosquitoes bite them to feed on their blood. There are around 200,000,000 cases and 430,000 deaths from malaria every year and children under 5 have a high risk of developing disease.

      There are ways to stop malaria and there are a number of antimalaria treatments available. In addition to medicine, the mosquitoes are only active at night so if you sleep under a net this can which stop the mosquito being able to bite you which prevents the disease spreading. We just need to make sure the people who really need the treatments are able to get them.

    • Photo: Alex Haragan

      Alex Haragan answered on 18 Jun 2018:

      Ah a great question!
      I research lung cancer so, personally, I’d love to be involved with curing that.
      >
      But if I could click my fingers and just wish away any disease?
      Well I’m not sure if you’d call it a disease, more a state of mind – but I wish I could make everyone care more about talking care of their bodies.
      >
      Many of the biggest killers – heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes etc – are often caused by choices in our lifestyle.
      Smoking, obesity, lack of exercise etc – these all contribute to early death, and in my opinion impact on quality of life.
      If people took more care to look after themselves – we’d see a big reduction in a lot of disease.

    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 26 Jun 2018:

      There have been some great answers here. I agree with them all! Each and every disease is bad in its own right – otherwise we wouldn’t be trying to stop them. I would have to agree with Ashley, Dementia and Alzheimer’s is awful to experience – either first hand or witnessing a loved one go through it. It is something we cannot currently cure, we can try to prevent it occurring, but it is one of those diseases where it will happen eventually and one of the most heartbreaking, in my opinion.

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