Posted on 08/06/2019 6:48:56 AM PDT by C19fan
“I read before about theories that Europeans brought mosquitoes carrying a virulent strain of malaria to the Americas...”
~~~
Mosquitos have very short lifespans. Seems unlikely they could make the trans-atlantic trip, even if generations of them somehow managed to stay with the ships.
It seems more likely that the Europeans came as carriers of that strain of malaria and the native mosquitoes transmitted it.
Among the many things I learned...thanks to seeing many,many patients come in with a "sickle cell crisis"...is that abnormal RBCs,called "sickle cells",were an evolutionary adaptation to malaria.
People with that particular disorder are basically immune to malaria for reasons that one must have a medical degree to understand.
One of the physicians at work told me that...long ago.
There is also a story about West Africans having blood with low copper content. Some Europeans started to give supplements to these people and they dropped like flies from malaria. It was realized that the low copper blood was an adaptation to fight malaria.
From what I read, there are three different predominant strains of malaria, with varying degrees of severity.
Despite lacking the germ theory of disease, slave buyers in the U.S. routinely paid a premium for newly arriving slaves from areas known for less severe strains. This info was conveyed in auction ads in newspapers.
Same thing happened to the British when they invaded and conquered Cuba in 1762 during the Third Silesian War. They found mosquito-borne malaria and yellow fever to be far deadlier than Spanish bullets. They were probably happy to hand Cuba back to the Spaniards when peace came the next year.
"Silent Spring" was a LIE perpetuated by the population control, eugenics crowd.
A major factor in how when and where the Panama Canal was built
Our church has been praying for a 6 year old girl somewhere in Africa who contracted Cerebral Malaria. Very serious!
Plywood dream.
That’s fascinating. I never heard that theory.
A single sickle cell gene causes a hemoglobin protein variant that is slightly less soluble than normal hemoglobin, a malarial parasite entering a red blood cell pushes the water level down just enough to cause that protein to crystallize, collapsing the cell and crushing the parasite.
Two sickle cell genes can cause the cells to collapse on their own. Ultimately clogging up the blood vessels and killing the carrier.
In an area where the gene is common fully a quarter of the children will be born with two copies and ultimately die of it. Two children in every four will be immune to malaria, and the remaining one is subject to malaria. If you do the math, the advantage of one sickle cell gene far outweighs the losses to two genes or malaria.
In my case, 15 years or so ago, I took an accelerated course which involved just under a 5 week commitment. It was real work, but quick stuff. Presumably such classes are still offered around here and in other parts of the country.
Lord Carnarvon, who led the expedition that discovered King Tut’s tomb, died from a mosquito bite.
How’s that for Insect Power?
Completely incredible airplane!
Female mosquitoes can live up to a month. Male mosquitoes only a few days after breeding. Not out of reach for a transatlantic trip with good weather and winds. Not to mention the fact that the bilges of wooden ships were likely superb mosquito breeding ground.
I can see a female mosquito laying eggs in the bilgewater, with eggs and larva dumped at the end of voyage when the bilges were pumped out.
I’m a Caucasian skinned person with sickle cell trait - I don’t have sickle cell anemia, per se, as it’s a recessive trait.
That does provide immunity to malaria, however.
Oddly enough, I found out I was a carrier by joining the US Navy. They tested me three times, and each time said “Yup, you’ve got sickle cell trait”.
People who inherit one sickle cell gene and one normal gene have sickle cell trait (SCT). People with SCT usually do not have any of the symptoms of sickle cell disease (SCD), but they can pass the trait on to their children.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/traits.html
Sickle cell trait is a common disorder, especially among African-Americans. It generally presents no problems unless the faces extreme physical conditions. For this reason, and because of its high likelihood of being passed on, you should talk to your doctor about being tested and monitored for the condition if you’re in a high-risk group. High-risk groups include African-Americans and people of Hispanic, South Asian, Southern European, or Middle Eastern decent. Being monitored is especially important if you’re a known carrier and an athlete, or if you’re thinking of starting a family.
https://www.healthline.com/health/sickle-cell-trait
Sickling and sickle cell disease also confer some resistance to malaria parasitization of red blood cells, so that individuals with sickle-cell trait (heterozygotes) have a selective advantage in environments where malaria is present.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_trait
The life of the mosquitoes about 48 hours and they have to have standing fresh water to survive the stair are close to zero here in California and they also cannot survive weather under about 60°F at night
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