
Sri Lanka Is Declared Malaria Free by World Health Organization - known
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2016/09/06/sri-lanka-is-declared-malaria-free-by-world-health-organization/
======
hliyan
Sri Lankan here. We're not exactly celebrating because within the last 10
years, cases of dengue fever has risen from about 9000 to
32000:[http://www.dengue.health.gov.lk/index.php/information-on-
den...](http://www.dengue.health.gov.lk/index.php/information-on-dengue/sri-
lankan-situation)

Another interesting thing: when DDT was banned in the 1960's, Sri Lanka's
malaria cases went from 17 to half a million:
[http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/02/17/ddt3/](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/02/17/ddt3/)

~~~
phaemon
> when DDT was banned in the 1960's

It's even more interesting that the link you provided explains that that's a
complete myth. Read the whole thing.

~~~
hliyan
My parents and grandparents lived through this period. I suspect what you're
trying to say is that the DDT connection is a myth and not that you're
discounting the collective memories of an entire nation?

------
jfoster
Does anyone know what eradication techniques they used to such great effect on
malaria, but allowed for an increase in dengue? I would've expected malaria
and dengue to move together for any commonly used eradication technique.

~~~
tim333
Different mosquitos

>Success in controlling malaria over the past century has been attributed
predominantly to widespread implementation of insecticide-treated bednets,
household spraying of residual insecticides, and effective drugs to reduce
mortality and interrupt transmission

doesn't work with Dengue because they bite during the day and there are no
effective drugs.

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574272/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574272/)

though there are other ways we might take out the aegypti blighters
[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600689/we-have-the-
techno...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600689/we-have-the-technology-
to-destroy-all-zika-mosquitoes/)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536074](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536074)

------
j_koreth
Truly a monumental moment in human history, the beginning of the elimination
of malaria, one of the biggest killers of all time

~~~
JacobAldridge
Not really the beginning, but hopefully another big step. The USA was declared
Malaria free in 1949 after a specific elimination project - it seems the CDC
actually evolved from the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, established
in 1942.

[1]
[https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...](https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html)

~~~
dogma1138
And now there are more and more cases of Dengue and W. Nile and Yellow Fever
in the US, mostly because the CDC stopped doing national mosquito control and
its near powerless to resume that since NIMBY is more important than not
catching tropical diseases apparently.

------
WhitneyLand
A much faster solution:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive)

~~~
nerdponx
> Gene drives function only in secually reproducing species

I don't see why this is necessarily the case. Couldn't you, say, slow yeast
budding to the point of population collapse?

~~~
dflock
Sure, causing your expensive crispr yeast to die out, while having no effect
on wild yeast?

------
shanev
As a person of Sri Lankan descent, this is great news. However, the
elimination of malaria in Sardinia was correlated with the rapid rise of
multiple sclerosis and type-1 diabetes. This is because the parasite that
causes malaria is also thought to be protective against MS and diabetes [1]. I
hope that was considered in this case, because if not we're just trading one
problem for another.

[1]:
[https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1291...](https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-015-0306-7)

------
AhtiK
Any ideas if this means the region is now also free of dengue fever causing
virus that is also spread by mosquitoes?

~~~
a3_nm
I would guess not, because even Singapore and Bali are not dengue-free even
though they are malaria-free. (But that's just a guess -- I'd be interested in
a reliable source.)

~~~
Arnot
I was there on a holiday a few weeks ago. While they told us that malaria
isn't a problem anymore, they still warn tourists to protect against mosquito
bites as they can still carry dengue fever. From a quick google it seems that
malaria and dengue are spread by different mosquitoes, which might be why only
one if the two is gone now.

~~~
Turing_Machine
Yep. Malaria is spread by _Anopheles_ mosquitoes, while dengue, West Nile,
yellow fever, and other Flaviviruses are mostly spread by _Aedes_ mosquitoes.

In addition, Plasmodium (malaria) strains are much more species-specific than
Flaviviruses. That is, while non-human animals can get a form of malaria,
their malaria is usually not transmissible to humans. The Flaviviruses are
much less selective (e.g., West Nile can infect birds as well as humans). This
makes controlling the Flaviviral infections more difficult, as there's a virus
reservoir in the animal population. Just wiping out the mosquitoes around
humans isn't enough. You'd have to wipe out all the mosquitoes throughout the
entire region.

------
Ericson2314
Compensation for Venezuela...

~~~
kajjffkk
I dont get it.

~~~
Sanddancer
Venezuela was the first country that was ever declared malaria-free, but is
currently dealing with an epidemic due to various social and economic reasons.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/venezuela-malaria-
mi...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/venezuela-malaria-mines.html)

~~~
Ericson2314
Yes

------
AnimalMuppet
Declared malaria-free by _who_?

(Sorry, couldn't resist...)

Seriously, this is very good news. But... does anyone know how hard it is to
_keep_ someplace malaria-free? Is this once-and-for-all, or does it require
continual maintenance?

~~~
kajjffkk
[https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...](https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html)

