For more than 50 years, low-cost antimalarial drugs silently saved millions of lives and cured billions of debilitating infections. Today, however, these drugs no longer work against the deadliest form of malaria that exists throughout the world. Malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africaâ€"currently just over one million per yearâ€"are rising because of increased resistance to the old, inexpensive drugs. Although effective new drugs called "artemisinins" are available, they are unaffordable for the majority of the affected population, even at a cost of one dollar per course. Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance examines the history of malaria treatments, provides an overview of the current drug crisis, and offers recommendations on maximizing access to and effectiveness of antimalarial drugs. The book finds that most people in endemic countries will not have access to currently effective combination treatments, which should include an artemisinin, without financing from the global community. Without funding for effective treatment, malaria mortality could double over the next 10 to 20 years and transmission will intensify.
The essential, cornerstone book of modern environmentalism is now offered in a handsome 40th anniversary edition which features a new Introduction by activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new Afterword by Carson biographer Linda Lear.
It's the world's most successful public health insecticide, saving millions upon millions of lives from preventable, insect-borne diseases. Yet despite decades of use and thousands of studies on its effects, DDT remains the world's most misunderstood chemical. Orchestrated, well-financed, earnest, but myth-based campaigns forced most countries to ban DDT without scientific justification. These campaigns created a climate of irrational fear and ignorant prejudice around DDT and have condemned millions of the world's most vulnerable people to death. The Excellent Powder dispels these myths and sets the record straight. It reviews the fascinating history of this chemical that changed the world. It analyzes the scientific evidence and explains how and why DDT safely protects millions from the threat of malaria and other diseases. Finally, it documents how many activists choose to ignore this evidence, and how their ignorant prejudices continues to undermine disease control programs. "DDT has been the main agent in eradicating malaria ... and of having saved at least 2 billion people in the world without causing the loss of a single life by poisoning from DDT alone." World Health Organization, 1969 "The ban on DDT, founded on erroneous or fraudulent reports . . . has caused millions of deaths ..." 7 Gordon Edwards, scientist & entomologist, 2004
"The Mosquito Wars is a fascinating chronicle of the history of mosquito control in Florida over the past century. It details the positive contributions made by the profession's many managers and scientists. This work thoroughly describes how this profession has helped make Florida habitable and also puts the environmental controversies of mosquito control in the proper perspective."--Douglas Carlson, Indian River Mosquito Control District "The Mosquito Wars is an entertaining, accurate description of how mosquito control has developed in Florida to its current state."--Dennis Moore, editor-in-chief, Wing Beats The Mosquito Wars presents a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the development of human efforts to wage war on mosquitoes in 20th-century Florida. Drawing on archival records, interviews, and published records, Gordon Patterson provides readers with a context for understanding how mosquito control has shaped the environment of contemporary Florida. Patterson reveals how the discovery that yellow fever, malaria, and dengue fever were mosquito-borne diseases had a profound impact on Florida's development in the first half of the 20th century. State agencies organized campaigns from Pensacola to Key West against the disease-bearing insects. World War II opened a new era in mosquito control; the United States Department of Agriculture pioneered the use of DDT as an insecticide, and by 1944 army and navy pilots were regularly flying anti-mosquito missions. The 1950s ushered in a new objective--to reduce not only disease-bearing mosquitoes but also pest and nuisance mosquitoes. The growing problem of chemical resistance, however, led to the use of new and more powerful pesticides, raising concerns about the environmental impact of these chemicals on biologically sensitive wetlands. The ensuing controversy resulted in the rewriting of mosquito control laws in 1986. The continuing occurrences of encephalitis and the recent arrival of the West Nile virus, both transmitted by mosquitoes, dictate that mosquito control will continue to play a vital role in protecting the public's health and welfare. The Mosquito Wars presents a balanced, entertaining, and informative examination of this often heroic and sometimes tragic history of the battle to control mosquitoes in Florida. Gordon Patterson is professor of history at the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne.
Praised for its ability to kill insects effectively and cheaply and reviled as an ecological hazard, DDT continues to engender passion across the political spectrum as one of the world's most controversial chemical pesticides. In DDT and the American Century, David Kinkela chronicles the use of DDT around the world from 1941 to the present with a particular focus on the United States, which has played a critical role in encouraging the global use of the pesticide. Kinkela's study offers a unique approach to understanding both this contentious chemical and modern environmentalism in an international context.
Admittedly, the world and the nature of forced migration have changed a great deal over the last two decades. The relevance of data accumulated during that time period can now be called into question. The roundtable and the Program on Forced Migration at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University have commissioned a series of epidemiological reviews on priority public health problems for forced migrants that will update the state of knowledge. Malaria Control During Mass Population Movements and Natural Disasters- the first in the series, provides a basic overview of the state of knowledge of epidemiology of malaria and public health interventions and practices for controlling the disease in situations involving forced migration and conflict.
No single event played a greater role in the birth of modern environmentalism than the publication of Rachel Carson'sSilent Springand its assault on insecticides. The documents collected by Thomas Dunlap trace shifting attitudes toward DDT and pesticides in general through a variety of sources: excerpts from scientific studies and government reports, advertisements from industry journals, articles from popular magazines, and the famous "Fable for Tomorrow" fromSilent Spring. Beginning with attitudes toward nature at the turn of the twentieth century, the book moves through the use and early regulation of pesticides; the introduction and early success of DDT; the discovery of its environmental effects; and the uproar overSilent Spring. It ends with recent debates about DDT as a potential solution to malaria in Africa. "A superb collection. Included here are the texts that galvanized Rachel Carson to writeSilent Springand inspired her to insist on a new vision of cooperation between man and nature. Dunlap's book provides the context for one of the defining debates of our time and shows us why a resolution remains so elusive." - Linda Lear, biographer and author ofRachel Carson: Witness for Nature "To understand how DDT could win its developer a Nobel Prize and then be banned just decades later, read this book. Read it, too, if you want to understand the modern environmental movement. In these pages, those who helped make history tell you, in their own words, what happened." - Edmund P. Russell, University of Virginia "This thought-provoking and occasionally surprising collection of readings brings needed attention to Rachel Carson and her work. Dunlap's book will prove valuable for classes in environmental studies and American environmental history and for historians studying conflicts over pesticides." - Nancy Langston, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison "A fascinating and thought-provoking collection of texts that will give readers whole new perspectives on this critical controversy in the history of environmental thought." - William Cronon, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Students can use this collection to gain greater understanding of the development of the environmental movement, changing ideas about progress, science, and technology, as well as changing ideas about the role of nature in the modern world." - David Stradling, University of Cincinnati Thomas R. Dunlapis professor of history at Texas A & M University. He is the author of four books includingFaith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious QuestandDDT: Scientists, Citizens, and Public Policy.
This book contains 20 chapters, which are divided into 5 sections. Section 1 covers different aspects of insecticide resistance of selected economically important plant insect pests, whereas section 2 includes chapters about the importance, development and insecticide resistance management in controlling malaria vectors. Section 3 is dedicated to some general questions in insecticide resistance, while the main topic of section 4 is biochemical approaches of insecticide resistance mechanisms. Section 5 covers ecologically acceptable approaches for overcoming insecticide resistance, such are the use of mycoinsecticides, and understanding the role of some plant chemical compounds, which are important in interactions between plants, their pests and biological control agents.
