The dry-season malaria paradox, a bar to eradication, is solved

Re:The dry-season malaria paradox, a bar to eradication, is ... by hn_throwaway_99 on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @12:13AM (#33242887)

> It's a bit odd that 'The Economist' doesn't mention that the persisitence of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is fundamentally an economic problem.

Is it really though? I'm always curious to understand how malaria eradication in the US was so successful, primarily because, at least now anyways, we have a shit ton of mosquitos in the South. Why doesn't malaria rise up in the US again? Is the geography and climate of Africa just much more conducive to malaria?

The CDC has a good page about the eradication of malaria in the US, https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm..., and I understand the measures that were taken. But again, many days if I go out without slathering myself in bug spray in the summer I'll be covered with mosquito bites, so I don't understand why malaria isn't more common. Are our mosquito species just different?

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Re:The dry-season malaria paradox, a bar to eradication, is ... by shellfishgene on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @05:41AM (#33244930)

Probably the fact that in the US any malaria patient would be quickly diagnosed, isolated and treated plays a big role? It makes it a lot less likely that they would transmit it to the next mosquito.

Also in poor countries most people also get bitten in their house at night, with not screend doors or quality windows. I would assume this is pretty rare in well developed countries in comparison.

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Re:The dry-season malaria paradox, a bar to eradication, is ... by foxyv on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @05:14PM (#33254079)

This is probably the most likely case. Malaria is a purely human disease with no animal reservoirs other than mosquitos as a vector. No malaria in the humans, no malaria in the mosquitos.

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