How did we get a handle on malaria in the USA? We still have all the ingredients: swamps and mosquitoes. And, it’s not like we’re even given a vaccine! So, what’s the scoop?
In mesh netting,
- Jinx
How did we get a handle on malaria in the USA? We still have all the ingredients: swamps and mosquitoes. And, it’s not like we’re even given a vaccine! So, what’s the scoop?
In mesh netting,
Although not what this site says http://www.malaria.org/howcontrolled.html
I would assume that it has a great deal to do with sanation (more specifically sewage). As i recall Malaria was a big problem during the construction of the panama canal until someone took control of those problems.
This brief article might be helpful: Malaria in the United States
Malaria is still a concern in the US: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol2no1/zuckerei.htm
skripek, you may be confusing malaria with Typhoid
There was a time (post-WWII) when the whole world thought malaria was about to be eradicated because of insecticides and anti-malarial drugs. I think these things, along with swamp drainage (and probably other things) were what got rid of malaria in the U.S. in the first place. One reason it doesn’t come back, even though competent mosquito vectors are all over the place, is that the government pounces on any case of malaria acquired in the U.S. (pretty rare, but it happens) and takes steps to stop the spread, like spraying the area for mosquitoes and trying to medicate anyone who was around when it happened. Another thing that helps us is that the incubation period for malaria in a mosquito that bites an infected person (the amount of time before the mosquito can infect someone else) is 2-3 weeks, and in our climate mosquitoes are less likely to live that long. In some places, malaria has a hard time getting established because there are a lot of cattle around, and if the mosquitoes around there would rather bite the cattle than the people, it makes the spread less likely. That’s part of what slows it down in the U.S. and in Britain (although I’m sure there are plenty of cattle in places that still have malaria).
There’s all kinds of malaria info on the CDC website, including reports on the few cases that show up in the U.S. and reports about what other countries are doing about eradicating it.
There doesn’t seem to be a good archive search engine at newyorker.com, but there was a great article earlier this summer in The New Yorker (no, I don’t know which one, but it was in the last 3 months - library (gasp!) search would do it). About this fella who took it upon himself to rid the world of malaria. Turns out only several kinds of mosquito’s which tend to spread the disease (out of thousands), and getting rid of those species’ was the goal. DDT worked well for this, until folks started using it for anything and everything instead of selectively.
Check it out, very interesting reading.
Well, I think the nearly universal presence of window screens has a lot to do with it, too.
DDG is right. Five seconds after I submitted my last post, I found a great article about malaria eradication (and its possible return) on the CDC website, and it has this paragraph about how it was eliminated in Britain:
A lot of people have predicted that global warming will cause malaria to come back to temperate zones, but this article argues against that by pointing out that malaria was eradicated from Britain during a time of warming that followed the Little Ice Age, so climate isn’t enough.
Actually, malaria is on the rise in tropical areas, simply because we’ve grown so complacent that we’ve begun to let mosquito control programs slide.
While building the Panama Canal, the swamps were drained to stop the breeding of mosquitos so they wouldn’t spread malaria.
Also, people who have sickle cell anemia are immune to malaria. Part of evolution.
I don’t think malaria was as much of a problem in Panama as yellow fever was. The former is much more lethal.
The CDC publishes warnings for travelers that tell you where you can expect malaria or yellow fever or other nasty diseases when you go overseas.