Recently, the Mandera County in Kenya has suffered an outbreak of Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease. Chikungunya is an RNA virus that causes infected individuals to suffer fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue, rash, and joint pain. In most cases the joint pain can last several weeks, but in chronic cases the pain can last years. It is transmitted by female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos and symptoms start to appear between 2 - 12 days after infection. During the colonial era, medical practitioners in public health have attempted to solve this issue by dealing with mosquito vectors. The war against mosquitos led to policies of mass mosquito eradication, bush clearing, and chemical spraying campaigns. Although
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In addition to securing its’ borders, according to World Health Organization (WHO), the main preventive method against Chikungunya is the use of chemicals. Insecticides are sprayed and applied to various surfaces, especially water containers to exterminate mosquitos and larvae. This is similar to the practice of the colonial practice of mosquito eradication, which led to policies of bush clearing and chemical spraying campaigns. However, mosquito eradication is a difficult public health policy to implement and maintain because it is not cost …show more content…
In Panama, during the construction of the Panama Canal, Gorgas unleashed an extensive campaign against malaria. He had his men clear bushes and destroy potential breeding areas with large amounts of paraffin oil. Although Gorgas’ methods did help reduce the number of individuals who fell ill from malaria and yellow fever, his intense crusade on mosquitos was not an effective long-term public health solution. It was extremely expensive to maintain (it is estimated that Gorgas spent 2 million dollars a year to maintain his eradication methods) since the process required large amount of workers to enforce and to carry out. The cost of Gorgas’ program is important to note because it illustrates how mosquito eradication would not advantageous for countries that are not financially stable since it will become a long-term strain on a nation’s resources. Gorgas, himself, would not have been able to accomplish the feat without the U.S. financing his plans. In addition, his methods illustrate how a limited approach towards disease prevention is not sustainable because it does not acknowledge how economic, political, and social factors contribute to disease prevention. Historically, malaria and yellow fever epidemics occurred when a large group of non-immunes is exposed to infected mosquitos. The people who were dying were U.S. workers who arrived
In addition to securing its’ borders, according to World Health Organization (WHO), the main preventive method against Chikungunya is the use of chemicals. Insecticides are sprayed and applied to various surfaces, especially water containers to exterminate mosquitos and larvae. This is similar to the practice of the colonial practice of mosquito eradication, which led to policies of bush clearing and chemical spraying campaigns. However, mosquito eradication is a difficult public health policy to implement and maintain because it is not cost …show more content…
In Panama, during the construction of the Panama Canal, Gorgas unleashed an extensive campaign against malaria. He had his men clear bushes and destroy potential breeding areas with large amounts of paraffin oil. Although Gorgas’ methods did help reduce the number of individuals who fell ill from malaria and yellow fever, his intense crusade on mosquitos was not an effective long-term public health solution. It was extremely expensive to maintain (it is estimated that Gorgas spent 2 million dollars a year to maintain his eradication methods) since the process required large amount of workers to enforce and to carry out. The cost of Gorgas’ program is important to note because it illustrates how mosquito eradication would not advantageous for countries that are not financially stable since it will become a long-term strain on a nation’s resources. Gorgas, himself, would not have been able to accomplish the feat without the U.S. financing his plans. In addition, his methods illustrate how a limited approach towards disease prevention is not sustainable because it does not acknowledge how economic, political, and social factors contribute to disease prevention. Historically, malaria and yellow fever epidemics occurred when a large group of non-immunes is exposed to infected mosquitos. The people who were dying were U.S. workers who arrived