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Devastating effects
The vast majority of regions
that are affected by malaria also have high levels of poverty, malnutrition,
and other disease such as AIDS. They
have year-round transmission of malaria, with the mosquitoes breeding in such
small bodies of water as a cattle footprint in the rainy season. The areas are also not urbanized, meaning
that not all people sleep in houses, let alone in beds, making indoor residual
spraying and bed nets effective only in areas where they can be used. Malaria is not a simple disease, and it will
take more than a simple solu tion to rid ourselves of it. In spite of these complications, over the
years, with the eradication of malaria in the United States and many other
countries, effective strategies have been developed. Some groups, like Roll Back Malaria are
advocating open access for artemisinin-based therapies for all, saying that the
most effective treatments are a human right, where others fear that more
widespread use will lead to drug resistance at a quicker pace as more of the
parasites are exposed to the drug and those that are resistant and survive are
able to infect new hosts and multiply.
The
use of DDT has been mentioned numerous times in the New York Times as a
potential miracle drug to combat malaria based on its success in eradicating
malaria in the US. DDT has had a very controversial existence
since the first mosquitoes become resistant to it in the early ‘60s, it became
stigmatized after Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring, yet at the Stockholm Convention on POP’s, it was not banned for
everyone. Its use is still legal against
vector borne diseases, such as malaria.
Its use is legal, but the stigma surrounding it makes its use nearly
impossible. The Global Fund, nor the
CDC, nor the Gates Foundation fund its use.
Potentially aggravating those who give funds also leads nations to shy
away from its use.
[3] http://www.malaria-vaccines.org.uk/1.shtml
figure of boy with cerebral malaria accessed on 4/23/06
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