Malaria in The Bahamas is bad news. Residents in Exuma are rightly concerned, not only for their own health, but for their tourist industry as they don’t want their island to join those areas of the planet where visitors are warned that they are entering a malaria-risk zone and have to take their medication with them.
When the news made headlines late last week that there were three suspected cases in Exuma, a young person shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, they’re only mosquitoes, nothing to worry about,” he scoffed.
Unfortunately, malaria is something to worry about and is no scoffing matter. At one time it was one of the scourges of the world, and accounted for millions of deaths.
We always had mosquitoes in Nassau. but if one really wants to experience mosquitoes during mosquito season, then some of our Out Islands are the places to visit.
We recall many, many years ago that it was at Long Cay at dusk and just before a hurricane that we had our first encounter with real Bahamian mosquitoes. And what an experience that was. They buzzed towards us like a swarm of locusts. We could see them coming, but there was no protection from them. The force at which they hit our face and body was as though someone was pelting us with handfuls of sand. Wave upon wave hurled themselves at us, blinding us as we dove into fhe sea to get away from them.
As a child we remember sleeping under nets to be protected from them. Fortunately, the Bahamas does not – at least has not had so far – the malaria-bearing mosquito. But in the past week on Exuma 12 malaria cases have been reported. The first case was of an American who, it was said, had just come from a malaria area. The Bahamas was notified of his case when he returned to the US from Exuma, became ill with flu-like symptoms and sought medical assistance.
It was thought that his was an isolated case of someone who had contacted malaria elsewhere. However, concern mounted when a second case, and then a third was reported at Exuma. By Tuesday 12 cases were confirmed. Is it possible that we now have the malaria-bearing mosquito, or have mosquitoes that bit the first victim carried the parasite from him to other victims? Although it is known that malaria
cannot be transmitted from one human to another, it can be transmitted by the mosquito.
We recall persons who served in the East for many years having contracted malaria in their youth and suffering recurrences of terrible fevers for the rest of their lives. Our husband’s uncle, a British Brigadier who served in a Mahratta cavalry regiment in India, contracted malaria during his service. Every three or four years after he returned to England, he suffered terrible bouts of malaria, each bout threatening his life. Although the attacks continued for the rest of his life, it was cancer that eventually took him.
Although malaria has been eradicated from the United States since 1951, it is reported that “US residents remain at risk, especially when travelling in malariaendemic countries.”
According to the CDC, it received reports of “1,324 cases of malaria, with four deaths, that occurred in 2004 in the United States. All but four cases were in persons who had travelled to a malaria-risk area. Of the four cases in persons who had not travelled to a malaria-risk area, three were caused by congenital transmission (from mother to foetus).”
According to Bruce-Chwatt in Essential Malariology “prehistoric man in the Old World was subject to malaria. It is probable that the disease originated in Africa, which is believed to be the cradle of the human race. Fossil mosquitoes were found in geological strata 30 million years old and there is no doubt that they have spread the infection through the warmer regions of the globe, long before the dawn of history. Malaria followed in the wake of human migrations to the Mediterranean shores, to Mesopotamia, the Indian peninsula and South-East Asia. How malaria established itself in the New World is subject to speculation, as no reliable historical or other data exist on this point.”
Malaria infections can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated promptly.
It is hoped that, contrary to reports we are receiving from Exuma, the Ministry of Health is aggressively fogging the area. And now that we are in the rainy season – the breeding time for the mosquito – everyone should take precautions against being bitten.
Editorial from The Tribune
