Bala Muhammad
25 April 2009
column
The greatest murderer of all time was not Hitler, nor was it Pol Pot. Not even the Mongol Hordes could take that credit. The greatest murderer in history is, without doubt, the arrogant but feeble mosquito, one of the smallest of the Lord's creatures (and may the Lord perish it). The mosquito, sole distributor of malaria, wholesaler and retail monger of Africa's greatest malady, seems to defy all efforts to bring it under control.
On a visit to Nigeria in September last year, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that malaria may be the greatest impediment to Nigeria's drive to realise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Zoellick said that Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo accounted for 30 per cent to 40 per cent of deaths from Malaria in Africa.
We have used the so-called Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN); we have used mosquito coil, we have used Shelltox, and Mobil, and Rambo, and Ota Pia-Pia, and all sorts of gadgets and insecticides and poisons to rid ourselves of this millennium under-development menace called the mosquito, yet the slim devil, the harbinger of malaria, has refused to go away. And we have nothing against slims.
Wikipedia states that malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease. Each year, there are approximately 515 million cases of malaria, killing between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public health problem. Although some are under development, no vaccine is currently available for malaria; preventive drugs must be taken continuously to reduce the risk of infection. These prophylactic drug treatments are often too expensive for most people living in endemic areas.
In its entirety, the economic impact of malaria has been estimated to cost Africa $12 billion USD every year. The economic impact includes costs of health care, working days lost due to sickness, days lost in education, decreased productivity due to brain damage from cerebral malaria, and loss of investment and tourism. In some countries with a heavy malaria burden, the disease may account for as much as 40% of public health expenditure, 30-50% of inpatient admissions, and up to 50% of outpatient visits.
One effective way to fight malaria is the use of DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), one of the most well-known synthetic pesticides, in vector control. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history. In the second half of World War II, it was used with great effect among both military and civilian populations to control mosquitoes spreading malaria and lice transmitting typhus, resulting in dramatic reductions in the incidence of both diseases. For example, in Sri Lanka, use of DDT in vector control reduced cases from about 3 million per year before spraying to just 29 in 1964. Thereafter the program was halted to save money, and malaria rebounded to 600,000 cases in 1968.
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria (GFATM), a major Donor Agency, experimented with DDT indoor residual spraying in the copper mines of Zambia. The experiments were so successful that GFATM now uses DDT in the whole of Zambia. Malaria death rates in Swaziland which uses DDT is now 2-4%; South Africa was pressurized to stop using DDT in 1996 but because the incidence of malaria sky-rocketed, it ignored the corrupting financial aids of Donor Agencies and recommenced the use of DDT in 2000."
Dr. Offoboche continues to say: "I recommend that Nigeria adopts the same policy and not fall prey to the propaganda and financial pressures of environmentalists and Donor Agencies whose donations have not in fact improved our malaria status." The World Bank says Nigeria has 20 percent of the world's malaria cases-about 110 million a year among a population of more than 130 million. The disease is responsible for nearly 29 percent of children's deaths, and for 11 percent of deaths among pregnant women. The Africa Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) in its 2008 report, says there are "500 million cases of malaria each year, and up to 1.5 million deaths, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to an estimated 80% of the world's malaria cases."
Writing on MalariaEradicationInAfrica.org, Dr. Offoboche further argues that "The business of bed nets is booming at the expense of malaria control, their purchase is more profitable than their usage. Opposition to the use of DDT is also responsible for the diversion of huge donor funds to the purchase of mosquito bed nets the use of which is unpopular, unenforceable and less effective in the long run."
Last year, when our non-so-robust president was discussing his slight ailments, he did mention suffering from malaria, and that he had taken Metakelfin which the ailment forcefully rejected. He needed not worry: Alexander the Great died on June 10, 323 BC, from what many historians today believe to be malaria.
Someone has said, "If you think you're too small to be effective, you've never been in bed with a mosquito." May the Good Lord help us to perish this greatest murderer in history, the mosquito.
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Fight mosquitoes by habitat destruction. The Typha infestations that plague your continent are favorite breeding grounds. Other aquatic weeds do nearly as well. They're in your ditches, too. Clean out the Typha, make it into charcoal fuel (powdery, needs easy briquetting), and close down the mosquito nurseries. This will greatly increase the effect of your other measures. Cattail control was part of exterminating malaria and yellow fever in America.
It is very sad that the oil rich Nigeria and all those concerned about the perils of mosquiotes failed to identify ways of minimizing the dangers of mosquitoes. Growing up in Nigeria and with the education of the 60's we were taught that one least expensive ways of destroying mosquitoes to to get rid of standing pools of water! When will all the brains and Scientific reseachers awake to the fact that drains in Nigeria are antique/outdated! Right at the entry of the Yaba Medical Research center for example is an open dirty stinking mosquito breeding drain. Wake up Nigeria… [Read Full Text]
Thanks very much Bala for telling readers what they already know, about the
economic costs of malaria sickness,being inflicted by anopheles mosquitoes, and the stupid political rangling on wehter to use outdated DDT or nets to control the spread of malaria. Your writting did not consider the recent research developement on mosquitoes and the possible clue on how to eradicate the anopheles mosquitoes that cause malaria in people. These researches are going in europe and asia. The governments of African countries or indeed Nigeria,has never pursued a vigourous … [Read Full Text]