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August 28, 2011

We Still Can Dream


Scientists are reporting that there has been a dramatic decline in mosquito populations in areas of Africa that is not attributable to mosquitop control measures. This has also meant a dramatic drop in the number of malaria infections which is incredibly good news.

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are disappearing in some parts of Africa, but scientists are unsure as to why.

Figures indicate controls such as anti-mosquito bed nets are having a significant impact on the incidence of malaria in some sub-Saharan countries.

But in Malaria Journal, researchers say mosquitoes are also disappearing from areas with few controls.

They are uncertain if mosquitoes are being eradicated or whether they will return with renewed vigour.

Data from countries such as Tanzania, Eritrea, Rwanda, Kenya and Zambia all indicate that the incidence of malaria is dropping fast.

Researchers believe this is due to effective implementation of control programmes, especially the deployment of bed nets treated with insecticide.

But a team of Danish and Tanzanian scientists say this is not the whole story. For more than 10 years they have been collecting and counting the number of mosquitoes caught in thousands of traps in Tanzania. In 2004 they caught over 5,000 insects. In 2009 that had dropped to just 14.

More importantly, these collections took place in villages that weren't using bed nets.

I wish we could report the same thing happening to politicians with a concomitant decline in corruption and rampant socialist legislation.


10 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

Bad bugs are one thing, bad eggs are another.

hymns that preach said...

If mosquitoes are disappearing, it must be a man-caused disaster. The EPA should ban the use of mosquito nets.

sig94 said...

Gorges - It wouldn't be so bad if they only bit you once...

sig94 said...

Ralph - Heads will roll. Oh wait. It's the federal bureaucracy we're talking about.

Never mind.

Doom said...

I think some real civil rights workers are passing around DDT, to be honest. And I hope that is true.

As for politicians, unfortunately they seem immune to DDT. However, at least so far, elections still seem to work if people are willing to vote correctly. And it turns out, when you take away their toys or make them prohibitively expensive to play with, by raising prices on everything and ending employment potential, they actually do start thinking about why that is happening. Socialists always shoot themselves in the foot. This time they simply forgot to take away the guns that would allow them to ignore "their peasants".

Quite Rightly said...

That's great news about the mosquitoes, though.

sig94 said...

Doom - Grand Juries are the DDT for politicians.

sig94 said...

QR - Amen to that. Hopefully the suffering of these people will ease up some due to this.

christian soldier said...

last paragraph comparing disease causing mosquitoes to corrupt (disease causing)politicians is a good one!
Carol-CS

Kid said...

Hear Hear.