DDT and Malaria

DDT and Malaria

Introduction

Malaria is a worldwide infectious parasitic disease of the liver and red blood cells caused by protozoa of genus Plasmodium (Tren et al., 2001). At present, infectious disease experts agree that malaria is the world's most important tropical disease caused by a parasite, and that the disease can and does exist in some temperate regions. Because more than 40 percent of the world's population lives in places where malaria is prevalent, this disease continues to cause a worldwide health crisis.

No doubt, DDT is the most famous for the pesticides but environmental and public health furor resulting from its overuse and misuse significantly fueled the beginnings of the environmental movement that eventually helped to ban it. In the mid- to late 1960s, DDT became more of a political issue than a real health threat (Roberts & Tren, 2010). When it was banned in the United States in 1972, there were far worse substances being disposed of in the environment in large quantities. The ban on DDT may be more symbolic than the dire necessity it was portrayed to be (Roberts & Tren, 2010).

Discussion

It is a fact that people are infected with malaria due to mosquitoes as female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles act as the vector in malaria's transmission from infected to uninfected people (Tren et al., 2001). When living in a human host, Plasmodium behaves as a parasite, meaning it receives a benefit from its host while also harming the host. The Anopheles mosquito plays a crucial role in the malaria pathogen's development. Plasmodium undergoes sexual reproduction inside the insect's gut and develops into the infective form, which can be transmitted to humans in a mosquito bite. According to WHO (2007) malaria caused significant impacts on economic. In addition, mostly poor people affects malaria because they live ...