On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:18:20 -0600, zxcvbob
wrote:

DDT would be great for eradicating malaria. IMHO, malaria is the reason
Africa is a backwards continent that never will amount to much.

Well, that's just silly. AIDS is the biggest health problem in Africa
today, but there are plenty of others, even when you just consider
parasites. River blindness, leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, and
schistosomiasis are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.
The political and social issues would take days to cover, but they're
certainly germane to any discussion on the problems that most of
Africa third world.



If they
could beat malaria, Africa could join the 20th century -- or maybe even
the 21st. g

I hate to sound like a stuck record, but everyone keeps glossing over
the whole resistance factor. There were already some 20 or so species
of mosquitoes that were resistant to DDT by the time the ban went into
effect in the 70's. There were documented cases of species of
resistant house flies, too.

If we went back to using DDT today, there would be lots of areas in
Africa that it wouldn't work, and those areas would rapidly increase;
so there's already a need to find other tools in the fight against
malaria.


DDT is relatively non-toxic to humans, and it doesn't take much to spray
the inside walls of houses to kill the mosquitoes.

Not all malarial mosquitoes rest on the inside wall of the house,
though, some go outside before resting. shrug It's not a simple
problem.


Developed countries that have already beaten malaria can get by without
DDT. We tend to use way too much pesticides in general.


I can certainly agree with that.


Penelope


--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"