Quote:
Originally Posted by andyh2000
I aassume he's referring to the demonising of DDT which is very effective against mosquitoes and other bugs and can be used safely. Stop killing mosquitoes and more people get ill.
Andrew
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I'll be more precise.
Malaria.
It used to endemic to the southeastern US, up the Atlantic coast to the D.C. area. It was killed out in the 1930's by a combination of quinine and DDT to kill the
Anopholes mosquito.
Same for Southern Europe.
The was a world wide effort to eradicate it world wide, just like smallpox. By 1962, deaths from Malaria were down to 800 a year world wide. There was hope it could be eradicated by 1977.
Then came the DDT ban, caused by
Silent Spring. The few surviving reservoirs of Malaria exploded, and by 1977 there were 500,000 deaths a year. Now there are 700,000-800,000 deaths
a year by Malaria.
All caused by this book.
But since it isn't in the US and Europe, that didn't matter. And luckily, the
Plasmodium hasn't re-established itself in the First World. (A lot of careful Public Health work over the years.) Why do you think Bill Gates chose Malaria as the reason to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to create an effective vaccine with his charitable trust?
Not the record of
Das Capital/
The Communist Manifesto but certainly an A team killer book.
(For those who are interested, I have a degree in Micro/Molecular Biology. Epidemiology is just one of the things I studied...)
I guess this is one of the good things from the environmental movement....
Drop down and read my tag line...