The dragon known as malaria was almost made extinct at one point of time. The person who came close to killing this disease was Dr. Fred Soper. American-born, Dr. Soper completed his education from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He then joined the Rockefeller Foundation. Up till the second world war, the Foundation was involved in numerous international public health programs in 52 countries around the world. They conducted research on diseases such as malaria and yellow fever, and emphasizing the need to use a good mosquito killer.
Epidemic Fighting SupermanAccording to Dr. Soper, the key to fighting malaria was to organize resources on a nation-wide scale with particular emphasis on the groundwork involved in going from place to place, systematically eradicating all possible evidence of mosquito habitation along with the dreaded insect as well. A through professional, in his work in South America in 1930, Dr. Soper advocated checking and cleaning each and every nook and cranny where mosquitoes could be found in a house. Once all the houses in a sector were treated, the next sector would be treated with inspectors and supervisors on standby.
In 1930, Dr. Soper was called in when the Brazilian Government faced a malaria epidemic in 1938. With over 4,000 men working at spraying the countryside, spraying cars and truck interiors on highways and fumigating airports, sea ports and train stations. In two years, Dr. Soper and his team had eliminated the Anopheles gambiae species of mosquito from all of Brazil's 18,000 sq. km.
When DDT was announced as the new wonder insecticide, Dr. Soper decided to field test the new mosquito killer in the most malaria-prone area of Italy. In 1947, the island of Sardinia was divided into areas, 33,000 people were hired and 337,000 buildings were sprayed, hundred thousand acres of swampland were drained and vegetation around streams and marshes where mosquitoes breed were cut down. The end effect is visible in the malaria statistics for Brazil. Before Dr. Soper's program, there were 75,000 cases of malaria in 1946 but after the program was completed, 1951 witnessed only 9 cases of malaria.
Global Malaria Eradication ProgramWhen a former employee of Dr. Soper, Marcolino Candau, a malariologist from Brazil became Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Soper established the Global Malaria Eradication Program in 1955. By 1960, 36 nations had joined up. The Caribbean, Balkans and South Pacific region, Northern Africa and Australia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and India eliminated their malaria problem. India used to have 75 million malaria-related deaths every year; after the program, this figure dropped to zero.
After the second world war, the Aramco firm's medical department started the first malaria program in Saudi Arabia. Later the program was handed over to the Saudi Arabian Government. By 1956, the disease showed signs of disappearing from the nation and by 1977 the focus had shifted from malaria eradication to malaria control. However, following the outbreaks in 1998, the country has decided to reach for the mosquito repellent spray can once again and has re-established the malaria elimination goal.
Epidemic Fighting SupermanAccording to Dr. Soper, the key to fighting malaria was to organize resources on a nation-wide scale with particular emphasis on the groundwork involved in going from place to place, systematically eradicating all possible evidence of mosquito habitation along with the dreaded insect as well. A through professional, in his work in South America in 1930, Dr. Soper advocated checking and cleaning each and every nook and cranny where mosquitoes could be found in a house. Once all the houses in a sector were treated, the next sector would be treated with inspectors and supervisors on standby.
In 1930, Dr. Soper was called in when the Brazilian Government faced a malaria epidemic in 1938. With over 4,000 men working at spraying the countryside, spraying cars and truck interiors on highways and fumigating airports, sea ports and train stations. In two years, Dr. Soper and his team had eliminated the Anopheles gambiae species of mosquito from all of Brazil's 18,000 sq. km.
When DDT was announced as the new wonder insecticide, Dr. Soper decided to field test the new mosquito killer in the most malaria-prone area of Italy. In 1947, the island of Sardinia was divided into areas, 33,000 people were hired and 337,000 buildings were sprayed, hundred thousand acres of swampland were drained and vegetation around streams and marshes where mosquitoes breed were cut down. The end effect is visible in the malaria statistics for Brazil. Before Dr. Soper's program, there were 75,000 cases of malaria in 1946 but after the program was completed, 1951 witnessed only 9 cases of malaria.
Global Malaria Eradication ProgramWhen a former employee of Dr. Soper, Marcolino Candau, a malariologist from Brazil became Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Soper established the Global Malaria Eradication Program in 1955. By 1960, 36 nations had joined up. The Caribbean, Balkans and South Pacific region, Northern Africa and Australia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and India eliminated their malaria problem. India used to have 75 million malaria-related deaths every year; after the program, this figure dropped to zero.
After the second world war, the Aramco firm's medical department started the first malaria program in Saudi Arabia. Later the program was handed over to the Saudi Arabian Government. By 1956, the disease showed signs of disappearing from the nation and by 1977 the focus had shifted from malaria eradication to malaria control. However, following the outbreaks in 1998, the country has decided to reach for the mosquito repellent spray can once again and has re-established the malaria elimination goal.