3 ms·
Doesn't it take just one tourist with malaria to bring it back?
by bufferoverflow 2y ago
Doesn't it take just one tourist with malaria to bring it back?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- School-Cotton 2y agoMalaria isn't contagious
- folli 2y agoThat's technically correct, but an infectious person can infect another person over a vector (i.e. mosquitos). So you get rid of mosquitos OR rid of malaria.
- School-Cotton 2y agoThat’s true; I didn’t realize it could go human -> mosquito -> human but according to Google you’re right.
- tshaddox 2y agoIsn’t that the only way? I’m pretty sure the human hosts are a vital step in the Plasmodium lifecycle.
- arp242 2y agoAlso not all species of mosquito transmit malaria, or have a much smaller chance of transmitting it. I remember watching a BBC programme where someone was researching whether malaria mosquito had returned to Britain (they hadn't). So even if you would somehow introduce a few busloads of Malaria-stricken people, that's not likely to re-introduce Malaria.
- tshaddox 2y agoFTA: > Certification is granted when a country proves that the transmission chain is interrupted for at least the previous three consecutive years. And > To get the WHO certification, a country must demonstrate the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.
- eacnamn 2y agoDo you know whether that capacity is regularly reinvestigated? Because if not you could get the certification, wait a couple of years, and then dismantle all infrastructure while still reaping the, if ephemeral, benefits.
- lenzm 2y agoAs if the main benefit of being certified malaria free is the certification instead of actually being malaria free?
- yaseer 2y agoIt's not quite like other infectious diseases (e.g. COVID), in that transmission is dependent on mosquitos as a vector. If they've sufficiently damaged the vector one tourist alone cannot bring it back - the disease vector would also need to come back.
- dotcoma 2y agoI don’t think so. I don’t think malaria is contagious.