Malaria Deadlier than HIV/AIDS
It is amazing to hear that there is any other disease(s) known that is deadlier than HIV/AIDS.Deadlier than HIV/AIDS
By Oluwatosin Adebomeyin
We all know that HIV/AIDS is acquired or contracted through one having blood contact with the blood of an already infected person or by using materials such as needle, blade, etc that have been injected with it before. HIV/AIDS is unarguably avoidable. We have heard on ways we can prevent it and keeping to it, one cannot be infected. A disease is partially unavoidable and it ravages more than HIV/AIDS.
Malaria is a disease that occurs throughout tropical, sub-tropical, and even temperate regions wherever conditions favour the breeding of Anopheles mosquitoes. The so-called malaria belt includes parts of Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Ecuador, Africa, India, South East Africa, and the Philippines.
The name malaria is derived from the Italian words mal aria, meaning “bad air,” because mediaeval Italians believed that the occurrence of the disease in the humid, swampy regions of the country was due to the air there. The real cause of malaria was not discovered until 1880, when the French army physician Charles Laveran, while stationed in Algeria noted unusual shapes in the red blood cells of malaria patients. Indeed, malaria is one of the oldest diseases known to man.
It is estimated that 100 million cases of malaria occur each year. In some places, nearly the entire population is infected. Many of these people develop only mild cases because repeated infections have made them somewhat immune. The parasite that causes malaria transmitted from infected people to healthy ones through the bite of anopheles mosquitoes. More than 60 different species of these mosquitoes can carry the disease. Malaria also may be transmitted through hypodermic injections or transfusions unit blood from infected people.
Malaria is deadly and dangerous. Our government should stand-up against it and give it required publicity in order to find a lasting solution to its eradication. This disease is killing the old and young in the society, most especially the poor and uneducated people who see it as an ordinary disease. We all carry in our blood the parasite. We are even tired of using all these quine tablets. Let us find another means of eradicating it completely.
Controlling malaria in a community depends primarily on eradicating the mosquitoes that carry the disease. Spraying with DDT and similar insecticides may be very effective, as in draining marshy areas where mosquitoes breed. DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichlorobenzene) is manufactured from chloral and chlorobenzene. It is an insecticide that acts as a nerve poison, paralyzing insects. It is used to kill or control mosquitoes that carry malaria and yellow fever. It is a residual poison that retains its effectiveness in a sprayed area for weeks, although it may persist in the area for years. It is harmless to most plants, but members of the cucurbit family, which includes cucumbers, are harmed by it.
Why can’t our government use DDT to eradicate mosquito? We are tired of using tablets. America and Europe was once ‘ravaged’ by mosquitoes causing malaria, but during the World War II, DDT was sprayed and it drastically reduced malaria from nearly 90 per cent to 10 per cent cases. It was later discovered that it was somehow poisonous, but inasmuch as it will reduce this deadly and killer disease known as malaria, our government should use it. Our community must be free of it.
http://www.dailytimesofnigeria.com/DailyTimes/2003/December/24/Deadlier.asp
Tags: Health, Malaria