Category: The Fever (Page 4 of 4)

Newsweek’s short piece on malaria in Africa (September 24, 2007) is full of misinformation and mythology. For example, there has never been any continent-wide malaria control in Africa, as the lead sentence brazenly states; mosquitoes develop resistance to DDT by exposure to brand-name pesticides sold by Western chemical companies like BASF and others, not just by African farmers illegally using DDT on their fields; the main reason DDT wasn’t used in Africa for so long is because the EU and others told African farmers they wouldn’t buy their farm products if they did; and there’s evidence to suggest that malaria problem in Zambia has not gotten better, it has been worsening, and the mining companies’ whose work the article lauds have been the subject of riots.
None of these counter-points are speculative but near-consensus opinions in the malaria field. It is strange to see the mainstream press diverge so much from expert opinion: smells to me like politics eclipsing science.
Check it out: The Doomsday Spray: To fight malaria, African nations are turning to DDT.

I recently asked a bunch ofnurses at a NIH-funded malaria research clinic in Malawi where all thelocal malarial mosquitoes bred, and they answered in unison–“in theswamp.” Not so, said the mosquito biologist in the next building over.In fact the bugs that were killing their patients nursed their young inthe puddles right outside the hospital’s unscreened windows.
To think that we could develop a man-made mosquito–our ownsuper-mozzie–more adept than those in the wild, with their greatdiversity of habits and lifestyles greatly underestimates the wilinessof these dappled flies. Stalked by pathogens, relied upon by no creature,these insects have thrived for over 100 million years, in almost everyplace where the sun shines and the rain falls, however seldom. They’refantastically good at it. Some GM mosquito might beat a few of thesehardy survivors, in some places, at some times, but they couldn’t beatthem everywhere.
GM mosquitoes surely will teach us somethingabout the spread of malaria but they won’t end it. As with DDT, there’sno one-size-fits-all solution to malaria, our most ancient scourge, tryas we might to find one.

To think that we could develop a man-made mosquito–our own super-mozzie– more adept than those in the wild, with their great diversity of habits and lifestyles greatly underestimates the wiliness of these dappled flies.
Stalked by pathogens, needed by no creature, these insects have neverthless thrived for over 100 million years, in almost every place where the sun shines and the rain falls, however seldom. They’re good at it. Some GM mosquito might beat a few out, in some places, at some times, but they couldn’t win everywhere. As with DDT, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to malaria, try as we might to find one.