Mark Hoofnagle has a MD and PhD in physiology from the University of Virginia, and is now a general surgery resident. His interest in denialism concerns the use of denialist tactics to confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge.
The World Health Organization has declared today World Malaria Day. Why "World Malaria Day"?
World Malaria Day is an opportunity for malaria-free countries to learn about the devastating consequences of the disease and for new donors to join a global partnership against malaria.
World-wide there are about a million deaths yearly from malaria, mostly in young children. Here in the States, we almost never see malaria. That wasn't always true. When Franklin Roosevelt founded the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933, malaria affected about 30% of the population in the TVA region. With the use of pesticides and drainage of wetlands, malaria was effectively eliminated in the U.S. by 1951. DDT was used extensively---it was sprayed judiciously, on the interior walls of rural houses, and not-so judiciously on breeding grounds. DDT can be a very effective tool to combat malaria. When malarial mosquitoes bite, they then rest on the interior wall of the victim's house. It takes only a small amount of DDT on the wall to kill these mosquitoes. (DDT later became an environmental disaster when it was used in a non-judicious fashion on crops. For more on the interesting and controversial topic of malaria and DDT, see this).
A very effective and affordable tool to prevent and control malaria is the insecticide-treated bed net. These nets have actually been shown to decrease all-cause mortality where they have been studied.
Malaria is nasty. Healthy adults who contract it often suffer terrible relapsing fevers. But many victims, especially children and pregnant women, suffer much more severe disease, including cerebral malaria, severe hemolytic anemia, liver and kidney failure, and death.
Several years ago, I admitted a businessman to the hospital. He was terribly ill---fevers, jaundice, kidney failure, low blood pressure. He reported having traveled to West Africa on business, and he did not take malarial prophylaxis. He had classic "blackwater fever". It took all the resources of a modern American intensive care unit to pull him through, and just barely. Imagine the same patient thousands of times over in Africa.
World Malaria Day is an opportunity for those of us in the malaria-free world to learn about how to help stop one of the worlds largest killers of children. Link it, blog it, make some noise.
Medicine & Health
Comments
Mosquito nets are so incredibly important. Not only do they cut down on the transmission of malaria from infected vectors to susceptible hosts, they prevent it from heading in the other way, too: cuts down on the number of susceptible vectors biting infected hosts and [i]becoming[/i] infected vectors. It always shocked me that such an efficient and easy solution wasn't better funded.
Posted by: Stephanie | April 25, 2008 1:19 PM
World Malaria Day is April 25, 2008. Africa Fighting Malaria is issuing a Call to Action to support indoor residual spraying, a highly effective, World Health Organization-approved method of malaria control – check out our interactive Africa map: http://fightingmalaria.org/issues.aspx?issue=14
Also check out our new video and support AFM's fight against malaria! http://fightingmalaria.org/AFMInAction/
Posted by: Africa Fighting Malaria | April 25, 2008 1:41 PM
Please do not give money to Africa Fighting Malaria. Read about the history of this organization.
I recommend The Global Fund.
Posted by: Tim Lambert | April 26, 2008 4:04 AM
Thanks, Tim...I'd certainly agree with you on that one. I appreciate the link, and also incorporated a nice entomology link in the body. There has been so much on malaria control lately, especially bed nets, but you basically have to listen to the BBC if you live in the states and are interested.
Posted by: PalMD
| April 26, 2008 9:51 AM