Why Don't We See Cases of Malaria in the US? (0:50)
Malaria may seem like a problem reserved for far-off lands, but in reality it returns to industrialized nations quickly if precautions aren't maintained. In this video, HealthMaker Joe DeRisi, PhD describes how malaria is prevented.
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Malaria was prevalent in the US for many many years, as recently as 1910, there was reportedly at least 10,000 cases of malaria a year in San Francisco and it's because in the case of California for example, this state spends, you have to get the exact figure off their website, but millions of dollars on mosquito abatement every single year, and if you work in San Francisco and look at the drains that go in the side walk, you'll see little paint spots.
Those paint spots denote the sprain schedule of every single sewer in every single drain in the entire city, if you didn't do that, you can bet malaria will be back. Any time there is a civil breakdown or a war even industrialist countries, for example take Yugoslavia, malaria comes right back.
Joe DeRisi, PhD, is a pioneer in genetic research techniques to understand the behavior of malaria and further prevention and treatment. He discusses the ethical issues of biomedical and genetic research.
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