Malaria a possibility in the Cape

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk believes global warming will bring the dreaded anopheles mosquito to the Cape and many other parts of the republic.

It is not impossible that malaria could spread here, but global warming would not be the cause. Malaria is caused by malaria parasites transmitted by mosquitoes.

The life cycle of the parasites is complex, and temperature (global warming) plays a very small part.

Shakespeare's plays make repeated reference to malaria, which was endemic in London, England, in Elizabethan times. The southern United States was almost uninhabitable until the 1950s, when the widespread use of DDT broke the vicious cycle for ever. When the swamps of Rome were drained, the Eternal City was freed of the malarial plague.

These examples make it abundantly clear that public health, not temperature, determines whether malaria will spread. Falling into the trap of blaming every disaster on global warming diverts attention from the solutions to the real problems that Africa faces in fighting malaria.

Millions are dying annually from the disease because public health capacity is lacking. I cannot find one person whose life is presently being shortened by climate change.

Source: www.capetimes.co.za