Malaria…

…is not just something that affects the poor in other countries: it is never far away. This LA Times editorial is a step in the direction of public awareness, but says some things that just aren’t so. (Who am I to say? Well, I came down with a bad case in Zimbabwe, got obsesssed with the subject, amassed a small library on various parasites, and even wrote a short account of my adventure for Men’s Journal).

The editorial writer makes some sensible connections between the disease and poverty. But then he states: “Unfortunately, there aren’t very many [ lessons] to be learned from the United States. American mosquitoes didn’t evolve to carry the malaria parasite, and they aren’t very efficient at it. In Africa, they are the perfect hosts; the hot African climate also accelerates the progress of the disease. Americans never faced a threat close to the one in Africa”.

The last statement is literally true; the rest is biological nonsense. Native malaria was a major impediment to the settling of the Ohio River Valley– Lewis and Clark encountered it there. It wasn’t wiped out in Staten Island until the Thirties! Hell, the disease was named in Rome, and prevalent even in colder Venice– it is not only a tropical affliction.

There are many native malarias. Most are bird- adapted– I lost a falcon to one when I boarded him on the Rio Grande. But falciparum, the deadliest malaria, jumped from bird to human, the way Avian flu may be poised to today.

It CAN happen here.

For a comprehensive (and often amazingly witty!) look at the biology and anthropology of malaria and other parasites I highly recommend the books of Robert Desowitz, a man who has fought in the trenches of public health.