

Lessons From the Low-Tech Defeat of the Guinea Worm - jcabala
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/upshot/lessons-from-the-low-tech-defeat-of-the-guinea-worm-.html

======
jobu
Yes, low tech things like properly washing hands can save lives, but what's
even more important is public awareness and public disclosure:
[http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/public_di...](http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/public_disclosure_of_hospital_infection_rates_vary_by_state)

 _" Rates of mortality from coronary artery bypass surgery varied widely among
hospitals before the state began requiring public reporting of death rates
from the procedure. Four years into mandatory reporting requirements, average
hospital death rates from the operation fell by 41 percent."_

------
seizethecheese
Water treatment actual was high tech at some point. This says more about how
far some of the world still must come than it does about research.

People want so much to comment on anything relevant to tech, it gets tiresome.

------
presidentender
This means that the Guinea Worm is now a very endangered species. Won't
someone think of the worms?

~~~
derefr
Probably this is a not-very-empathizable example (thus the downvotes), but the
principle is sound. Humans re-engineer the Earth to obey human morality. We
think the wolf killing the sheep is wrong, so we put a fence between the wolf
and the sheep. Now the wolves start starving to death, so we toss sheep steaks
over the fence. It's a weird equilibrium. (Though possibly solved one day, for
the most part, if we get vat-grown meat right.)

~~~
presidentender
I think probably that if we do vat-grown meat, the sheep all die without
offspring, since we'd have no reason to breed them and they're not very good
at surviving on their own.

