[SunkenCiv]

[snip] Malaria is believed to have been a factor in the decline of the Mesopotamian civilization and the Roman Empire. [/snip]

LIFE IN THE TROPICS:A NEVER ENDING BATTLE WITH NATURE
vt.edu | 1976 and 2002 ? | Kamarck
Posted on 12/08/2002 8:40:36 PM PST by dennisw
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/803192/posts

[gibsonguy]

At least as big of a factor was Rome not defending her borders and their culture was destroyed. Sound familiar?

[hinckley buzzard]

Finding one childrens' cemetery is hardly the basis for explaining the collapse of an empire. By 450 AD the empire was tottering anyway for an abundance of reasons. While I wouldn't doubt malaria was a problem, the evidence for it to be a decisive factor in history is not presented in this news release.

[ThanhPhero]

I take quinine when I go to Việt Nam but the town I stay in, Cam Đức, has very few mosquitoes. When I go down around Sài Gòn though, there are a lot of the little buggers. I seem to taste bad or something because I almost never get bit by insects. I do not, however, neglect the quinine.

[palmer]

LIFE IN THE TROPICS:A NEVER ENDING BATTLE WITH NATURE

Most "tropical" diseases have tropical reservoirs, but are fundamentally socio-economic. Malaria has mainly a human reservoir and is therefore almost completely socioeconomic. Malaria was once endemic in N. America up to the Arctic. The reason we have no more malaria is wealth. DDT is hardly a cure-all, people give it way too much credit. It is good for general mosquito control, but the secret to eliminating malaria and many other transmittable diseases is a high quality disease monitoring system (from high quality health care), isolation of victims, elimination of specific populations of mosquitoes (lots of DDT alternatives for that) and other first world factors.

The third world pimps like to blame the "tropical" diseases for their predicament. But the problem is socialism, authoritarianism, etc.