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"The emergence of drug resistance, widespread resistance to available
insecticides, wars and massive population movements, difficulties in obtaining
sustained funding from donor countries, and lack of community participation made
the long-term maintenance of the effort untenable. Completion of the eradication
campaign was eventually abandoned to one of control." [4]
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Failure of malaria eradication efforts abroad:
While the US eradicated
malaria in 1951, malaria eradication worldwide has not been as fruitful.
In 1955 the World Health Organization believed that a quick and
effective blow to malaria could eradicate malaria worldwide. The eradication
efforts began with house spraying with residual insecticides, much like the US malaria
eradication, but the plans also included anti-malarial drug treatment and
surveillance. Climate was an important factor in successful
eradication. In regions with temperate climates where transmission was
only seasonal, eradication was successful. In other areas such as India and Sri Lanka there were huge
reductions in the number of cases, but cessation of control efforts led to a
resurgence of the disease. Some nations showed little or no progress,
such as Indonesia, Afghanistan, Haiti,
and Nicaragua, while other
regions such as most of sub-Saharan Africa
were never even included in the program. The CDC lists the following as
the main reasons why the campaign failed: “The emergence of drug resistance,
widespread resistance to available insecticides, wars and massive population
movements, difficulties in obtaining sustained funding from donor countries,
and lack of community participation made the long-term maintenance of the
effort untenable. Completion of the eradication campaign was eventually
abandoned to one of control.” Malaria was not always called a disease of
poverty, but the poverty stricken regions are among those that were not able to
eradicate malaria in the first great effort. 
Map [3]
The
plethora of environmental and social factors that influence the prevalence of
malarial cases designate certain regions as more susceptible. 80% of
malarial deaths and over 60% of malarial cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Other affected
regions include parts of northern South America, Central America, southwest
Asia, and Oceania.
There are currently
107 countries that have malaria risk. Entrance into many of these
countries requires vaccination against a number of vector borne
diseases and
prophylactic drug treatment against malaria. This is however a
luxury
that local citizens do not have, for prophylactic drug treatment is too
expensive, can be toxic in the long run, and would likely lead to the
quicker
occurrence of drug resistant strains of the malaria parasite.
Malaria has
been called ‘a disease of poverty and caused by
poverty.’ This is a new
conceptualization, for, in the ‘40s and ‘50s malaria was a
simply a
disease. Perhaps poverty is what separated those that now no
longer know
what it is from those that live with it on a daily basis.
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