Essay on Malaria and DDT

DDT has been used since WW2 as an insecticide to control the outbreak of malaria and typhus among troops and civilians. This is because malaria is spread by mosquitos and DDT was considered to be a powerful in eliminating these populations, thus decreasing the infection rate for malaria. Since it was first discovered as an insecticide, worldwide it was used in very large amounts because nobody knew any better and it was considered to be revolutionary. It wasn’t until 1962, when biologist Rachel Carson first outlined the potential harm DDT has on the environment, believing it caused cancer in humans and harmed bird wildlife. This led to the United Stated ban of DDT use in 1972, and later, a worldwide ban under the Stockholm

A positive consequence of DDT is its effectiveness, even in the face of pesticide resistance in the anopheles mosquito. The eradication of malaria in the United States and the health of US Soldiers while fighting in World War II can be greatly credited to the use of DDT

The use of DDT in the United States is banned, although it is still used in many other countries. DDT is still used in other places to try and control the mosquitoes that spread malaria around. India is the only country that still chooses to use DDT in large quantities today, whereas Belize and Bolivia, among others, have dropped the use of DDT out of fear of losing foreign subsidies. When the worldwide availability of DDT declined, poor countries did not have the ability to afford it. Due to this, 15 African countries declared that they would start producing the chemical to fight against malaria carrying

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) has had a huge impact on the fight against malaria, helping to ensure the control or eradication of malaria in many countries around the world in the mid-twentieth century. However, since its peak in the 1960s, succeeded by environmental and health concerns about the usage of the insecticide, more and more countries have been banning the use of DDT.

Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans. People who get malaria are typically very sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness.. In 2015 an estimated 212 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 429,000 people died, mostly children in the African Region. Although malaria can be a deadly disease, illness and death from malaria can usually be prevented. In Malawi, malaria is very common because

First off DDT has the ability to kill insects that carry diseases such as malaria. There is

Another disputed environmental issue is the use of DDT and if it should be banned worldwide. DDT has been a cheap and effective pesticide used against mosquitos carrying malaria, saving millions of lives. However, this pesticide has now been included in the “dirty dozen” due to its environmental effects, but about 25 countries continue to use the toxin (Easton, 281). Anne Platt McGinn provides the stronger argument stating DDT is less effective than previously and it should be banned or reserved for emergency use due to the environmental effects. On the other hand, Professor Donald R. Roberts ineffectively argues the environmental hazards have been misrepresented and the threat of malaria is more important, making DDT necessary to save lives.

Background - Malaria is a water borne disease. It is spread by a parasite-carrying mosquito. It kills many people and reduces a country 's capacity to develop. There are different strategies to combat malaria. Around half the population is at risk of malaria and this disease is active in 106 counties across Africa, Asian and the Americas (see source 3). the global annual mortality from malaria is between 1.5 - 3 million deaths, or between 4000 and 8000 each day. Developing countries are most vulnerable to Malaria and as shown on source 2 Malaria has been spread across many various other countries including in Europe, but these countries have eradicated Malaria.

Brian, G, Y., Greenwood, D, A., Fidock, Dennis, E, K., Stefan, H, I. Kappe, P., Alonso, L., Frank, H and Collins, P (2008) “Malaria progress and prospects for eradication.” Journal Clinical Investiment. 118: 1266-1276.

DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) was one of the most commonly used pesticides during the mid-1900's. This chemical was found to be effective in killing mosquitoes, thus stopping malaria epidemics, and was also useful against farm pests. However, mosquitoes often became resistant to this unnatural chemical after a generation or so of selective breeding. In fact, this pesticide did much more than simply getting rid of the insects pestering man. The most deadly feature of DDT was its ability to move through the food chain at a deadly pace.

Malaria has been in existence for thousands of years. Many historical records show that it has affected human civilization greatly by plaguing and causing mass death. The earliest record can be traced back to 2700 BC in China (Cox, 2002). It has been long associated with swamps and insects for hundreds of years but often believed to be the air from swamps causing the plague. The term malaria rooted from two Italian words ‘mala’ and ‘aria’ which literally means bad air. Humanity did not know the true nature of the long thought disease until 1894 when a Scottish physician, Sir Ronald Ross, discovered that it was actually the parasite in mosquito that is causing the malaria.

Malaria has been a major life-threatening disease for thousands of years, and continues to threaten millions of lives around the world. It infects approximately 219 million people each year, mostly poor women and children. What is striking about malaria is the fact that it has the worse effect on those with the least ability to fight the disease. The Republic of Cuba believes that malaria prevention, treatment, and research efforts must be accelerated to eliminate the burden of this disease across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and any country or territory at risk of malaria transmissions.

Malaria is considered one of the most serious and life-threatening public health problems in the world. According to World Health Organization, more than 3 billion people live in areas classified as being at risk from malaria, with nearly 200 million cases.1 Approximately, 750,000 deaths occur every year, primarily among children, due to malaria and its complications.1 Children less than 5 years of age are more vulnerable to be affected by malaria.2 In 2015, about 438,000 malaria deaths were reported, of which estimated 69% were children under 5 years of age.2

Malaria (also called biduoterian fever, blackwater fever, falciparum malaria, plasmodium, Quartan malaria, and tertian malaria) is one of the most infectious and most common diseases in the world. This serious, sometimes-fatal disease is caused by a parasite that is carried by a certain species of mosquito called the Anopheles. It claims more lives every year than any other transmissible disease except tuberculosis. Every year, five hundred million adults and children (around nine percent of the world’s population) contract the disease and of these, one hundred million people die. Children are more susceptible to the disease than adults, and in Africa, where ninety percent of the world’s cases occur and where eighty percent of the cases

About 3.3 billion people, that is about half of the world’s population are at risk of contracting malaria (figure 1). Every year there are 250 million cases of malaria, and nearly 1 million deaths. That amounts to 2,732 deaths per day. Out of those million people that die every year, 800,000 of them are African children under the age of 5. To control malaria three actions need to be taken: insecticides need to be used to decrease the vector population, people have to be educated as to how to prevent the vector from reproducing, and anti-malarial drugs need to be distributed. To understand the vector and what the vector is, scientists had to first discover what the parasite was and how it worked. It was not until the year 1880 that French Physician Charles Laveran discovered that Malaria was caused by a protozoan in the genus Plasmodium (Malaria, 2013)