h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

DDT has been given a very bad name and has been banned in many countries. Which is scandalous when it has the potential to save so many lives. (It is also a very safe pesticide compared to many others which have been developed since.)

Like every new technology, when used circumspectly it is very safe. 'Deep greens' want to see DDT banned globally, but I suspect that they don't have Plasmodium to contend with.

They tend not to have a clue what they are talking about either

But we all know that malaria is due to build up of negative energy, don't we??

Naturally

Interestingly my mother recently typed up a set of diaries written by her aunt when she was secretary to the Commonwealth Minister in the late 40s-early 50s.
One excerpt I read recently had a section about a diplomatic visit to South America in 1946. It seems that when their plane landed in Beunos Aires the whole thing was sprayed thoroughly from wingtip to landing gears in DDT to presumably prevent dodgy Mozzers from hitching a ride to an uncontaminated country.
Now *that* has to be use and abuse of the said compound!

Amen. P. falciparum seems to require a hot climate to thrive, so I imagine that a mozzer getting to Blighty might infect a handful of people at best. Don't forget that back then DDT was used with the same gleeful abandon with which antibiotics have been used until very recently, with much the same problems.

About a couple of dozen a year in England at present, but the number is increasing slightly every year. The main trouble is that European doctors don't recognise it. So you can be very ill indeed before you get treatment.

Hi Orcus,
Your entry brought back the memory of the spraying of the interior of the aircraft before we took off from an airfield which was either in Central,East or North Africa. I know I always had to place some sort of material over my mouth and nose because I used to cough and sneeze after the air-hostess had walked down the aisle - a spray container in each hand and the spray aimed towards the windows. I suppose this was in the old Vikings which used to do the run from Central Africa to the UK. I always believed that it was to kill any mosquitoes which might have got into the aircraft whilst it was on the ground and certainly no passengers ever complained. Sincerely, AR1

Oh I don't think my great Aunt was complaining in her diary - other than that they had to stay in the aircraft the whole time they were doing it. I guess it might have been quite a tedious exercise for those inside the aircraft with nothing to do

AR1
In your other thread you mentioned malaria giving recurring bouts. This certainly is the case, but it's P. vivax (as opposed to falciparum) which causes this, and vivax you tend to get in Asia. Your children had almost certainly contracted falciparum, which doesn't recur.
Mozzies aren't resistant to quinine, only DDT (I suppose a well-aimed G&T might be just the thing to get rid of the pests!). It's the parasite which is resistant to quinine. Nowadays your children would be treated with mefloquine/artemesinin or some other combination drug, and they'd probably be right as rain within a short time .

Dear FM,
Thank you for your reply. I obviously got hold of the wrong end of the stick. I got the impression that the treatment of malaria could no longer be quinine because the illness had developed a resistance to it. And as for the recurring bouts. Certainly whilst I was in Central Africa I knew quite a few people who had recurring bouts of malaria. Again I thought it was because my children had been diagnosed and treated so soon after the diagnosis that they had not succumbed to the recurring type.
I enjoyed reading your Home Page. Your daughter sounds delightful. I trust I am forgiven for not having written to you initially thanking you for the article. I still think that it is remarkable that three children should develop the illness within two hours of one another!Exactly ten days after we had had that fateful BBQ by the water's edge. Sincerely, AR1

DDT which was supposed to be a safe chemical to control mosquitoes had beened banned in countries like USA for most uses after verifying that it is refractory and harmful chemical and that it gets into food chains and food webs and through them ultimately reach man through his foodsand then damage his health slowly.Rachael Carson who was a biologist first discovered that the pesticides not only killed the pests but also damaged the natural growth of Osprey bird populations.She was also informed about the adverse impacts of the pesticides on natural growth of birds.Only after an indepth study US government decided to banthe use of DDT 30 years ago in USA.Recently their use is banned even in India to protect the environment and all people welcome the ban.
Prof.T.Shivaji Rao

Indiscriminate spraying of DDT is a bad thing. But controlled use of DDT in houses and on bed nets is a superb tool for control of mosquitoes close to humans. I belive a total ban on DDT would be completely counterproductive. By all means limit its use in the environment, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.