Malaria
Malaria is a disease spread by the mosquito (disease carrier). It is caused by a protozoan of the Sporozoa group. There are four species of protozoan that cause malaria, the most common of which is Plasmodium vivax. The malaria parasite spends its life in two hosts, its mosquito vector and animal host.
- Malaria is a disease confined to the tropics more for socioeconomic reasons than climatologic ones[1]
- Denizens of tropical countries like people of Latin and African origin are often carriers. Because of the increased prevalence of malaria in these groups and lax immigration the health of Americans is being put at risk.[2][3] Due to socialized medicine these immigrants also pose a threat to our fiscal health.
Contents
DDT Controversy
One very effective way to fight malaria is by using an insecticide called DDT.[4] Unfortunately for sub-Saharan Africans and some Asians, the U.S. ban on DDT has made this cheap (though teratogenic) chemical[5] very difficult to obtain. This helped lead to a renewed malaria epidemic, and more than one million people die of malaria every year.
There is a controversy over malaria eradication. While most Americans are in favor of relieving third-world people of the scourge of preventable disease, some prominent Westerners oppose anything that would lead to increases in population (see population control).
- Club of Rome founder Alexander King said, "My chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it greatly added to the population problem."
- Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau told Novelle Observateur, "In order to stabilize world populations, we must eliminate 350,000 people a day." [1]
Malaria is transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito.
Eradication efforts
Malaria was eradicated from the United States in 1951, and in 1955 the World Health Organization stated that it would eradicate malaria worldwide in an effort similar to the eradication of smallpox that was ongoing at the time. The eradication efforts were partially successful, particularly on the Indian subcontinent, but areas such as sub-Saharan Africa were ignored. This poor organization combined with lack of funding by donor countries and the evolution of mosquitoes to become resistant to many insecticides led to an abandonment of the eradication effort. In 2005 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would be donate $258 million to malaria research to compliment President Bush's Presidential Malaria Initiative of 1.2 billion over 5 years. The goal of these initiative is to achieve the worldwide eradication of malaria, which kills approximately 1 child every 30 seconds, through the use of vaccines, mosquito control, insecticide impregnated bednets (mosquito net), and new anti-malarial drugs.[6] [7]
The deforestation of the Amazon basin may also deliver disease. The culverts along new roads will provide spawning grounds for mosquitoes, and allow visitors to bring malaria to isolated areas.[8]
Malaria Symptoms
Symptoms of Malaria include weakness, high fevers, shaking chills, pains such as muscle aches & head ache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea with blood in stools, Dizziness and abdominal cramps, enlargement of the spleen and anemia.[9]
References
- ↑ Diagnosing Al Gore: Truth in the Balance
- ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19412737
- ↑ https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/guidelines/domestic/malaria-guidelines-domestic.html
- ↑ "Sprayed just once or twice a year on the walls of houses, this powerful repellent keeps most mosquitoes from entering; irritates those that do come in, so they don't bite; and kills any that land." Pro-malaria forces resurface at WHO - Paul Driessen - May 15, 2007 - Accuracy in Media
- ↑ Toxicology Network
- ↑ http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/Pri_Diseases/Malaria/Announcements/Announce-071007.htm
- ↑ http://www.pmi.org
- ↑ New roads in the Amazon may also deliver disease
- ↑ http://www.symptomsofmalaria.net/
