Sustained drive only can meet challenge of Malaria

The New Indian Express , Thursday, March 07, 2013
Correspondent :
Since preventive therapies are not of much use in stopping an onset of malaria, the only effective methods for combating the disease include the destruction of breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and either killing the insects with sprays and fumes or repelling them by using ointments. The use of mosquito nets at night is also routinely advised since the anopheles mosquito appears only at night unlike the dengue-causing aedes mosquito which bites during the day. Although this deadly disease, for which the intake of quinine has long been an effective remedy, was nearly eliminated in India in the 1970s, it has reappeared again with nine million cases being reported annually.

Since stagnant pools of water breed mosquitoes, official efforts have always been on doing away with swamps and clearing blocked drains. But attention has now turned to the factors which cause excessive rain and lead to the accumulation of water near human habitations. Ecologists have found that lower sea temperatures in the south Atlantic west of Africa in July leads to higher rainfall in Kutch in Gujarat and in Rajasthan during the monsoon. This creates enough watery sites for the anopheles to breed and cause malaria in October and November.

In a retrospective analysis of malaria epidemics in the region between 1985 and 2006, the researchers found that the July sea temperatures correctly anticipated nine out of 11 epidemic years and 12 out of 15 non-epidemic years. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, is yet another example which shows how everything in the world is interconnected. Meeting the challenge of malaria in India, therefore, and of other infectious diseases, requires not only sustained drive at the local level, but also the combined efforts of the global village, especially the scientists who can detect the interrelated causes through years of painstaking research.

 
SOURCE : http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/article1491046.ece
 


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