Disease Threatens in Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Analysis of threat from infectious disease in wake of Katrina — could malaria and cholera revisit the United States:

America’s commitment to mosquito control has been declining steadily since we eradicated malaria, and even fear of West Nile Virus didn’t spawn a massive re-commitment to funding mosquito abatement programs. Worse, to my knowledge nobody has ever had much success in clearing mosquitoes from the sort of massive water-soaked ecology that now is New Orleans, nor the scale of water-pooling debris found along the Gulf tri-state area.

Watch for the rebirth of the DDT debate . . . I hope we don’t start hearing about the “mosquito net for every person” mantra that we heard from liberals before the G-8 . . .

Thank you to Basil’s Blog for the Covered Lunch.