Article

2012-07-15 Afghanistan

Cholera, Malaria Cases Increase in Helmand

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Posted by trailing wife 2012-07-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 We had distributed anti mosquito nets for the residents of Helmand which works for five years but the people thought it was only for a year

They've all been converted to chi strainers by now no doubt.

Posted by Besoeker 2012-07-15 00:14|| 2012-07-15 00:14|| Front Page Top

#2 With all due respect, the "People care more about birds" line doesn't work.

The wholesale use of DDT in the 60s killed off the pollinators as well as the birds. In a farming area, this is devastating. No pollinators=no grain, no fruit, no vegetables. Starvation is not an improvement over malaria.

I don't know about Helmand, but in parts of Africa smaller doses of DDT has been approved for use in homes, away from the food crops. Enough to get rid of the mosquitoes without poisoning the food and the pollinators.

Posted by mom 2012-07-15 18:38|| 2012-07-15 18:38|| Front Page Top

#3 mom, back when he was into fertilizers and pesticides, my father invented a co-factor (not the correct word, but I am not a chemist) that made DDT as effective at 1/10th the dose. He made pots of money until Rachel Carson's Silent Spring came out... a year later.

But DDT also needn't be sprayed wholesale during pollinating season, but targeted to breeding areas and building walls where female osquitos hang out while waiting to go for that blood meal. We now know a lot more about mosquitos than we did in the '60s, surely.

Posted by trailing wife 2012-07-15 20:17|| 2012-07-15 20:17|| Front Page Top

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