Malaria, mobs and other travel buzz-kills

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I have begun to worry about malaria, and I’m taking malaria prophylaxis, even though I’m not about to leave for a safari or the wilds of Myanmar anytime soon.

I’ll wager, right now, that I am the only non-traveling person in our entire reading area who is taking malaria prophylaxis. The disease is not endemic to the U.S., so why take a preventive? (Explanation to follow.)

Even those who don’t venture beyond the bridges and tunnels, and don’t fancy foreign travel, know there are places in this world where the Anopheles mosquito carries malaria. It threatens 3.4 billion people, half the world’s population, almost all of whom live in developing countries. The disease killed some 650,000 people last year. You get a bite, a few days later your fever spikes and you begin to shake with bone-rattling chills. In many countries, there is no treatment available; people suffer and die.

Here on Long Island, we have relatively benign mosquitoes that crash our backyard barbecues, tormenting those who forget to use repellent. For decades they have been no more than a nuisance. But recently (and this is what got me thinking), there has been serious concern about the mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus, a disease the bugs contract from infected birds.

Last week, in an effort to mitigate that threat, Nassau County sprayed vast tracts of the south shore of Long Island during the overnight hours. Go, big government!

In the past, there have actually been small, isolated outbreaks of malaria in the U.S., caused by healthy mosquitoes biting sick people who carried the malaria parasites from their travels. The mosquitoes then bit other humans, spreading the disease. Those outbreaks were all easily contained because we have a relatively efficient public health system.

While West Nile is a home-grown problem, and our government is effectively addressing the threat, malaria is out of control in many areas of India, Southeast Asia and Africa.

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