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Will malaria be eradicated from the island of Zanzibar in the next 5 years?
Yes
13% (2 votes)
No
88% (14 votes)
Total votes: 16
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Comments
What is necessary for a positive reply to this statement?
The all out war as described in the blog is feasible. I truly believe that it is possible to treat all breeding sites on an island this small.
So why hasn't it been done yet? What is the main limiting factor for this?
And where do we go from there? What is necessary to eradicate malaria? Do you need to regulate the influx of mosquitoes from the mainland or can you control for the reintroduction of the parasite?
What is your opinion?
Remco Suer
Zanzibar and its malaria scourge
Dear Remco,
Unfortunately it is not that easy - with the current approach you cannot free the island of mosquitoes, and removal of the parasite reservoir (which could in theory be possible) would only be temporary as re-introduction from the mainland would occur.
Im my opinion there is only one definitive way to solve the problem. That is to free the island of mosquitoes (hard but not impossible), and then make sure that from the mainland the risk of introductions become minimised (using proper surveillance).
As it stands at the moment, they will use mobile telephony to quickly spot any uprise in cases that can be followed up. This will surely work and help to prevent a rapid build-up of cases, but it is not the end-solution.
Curious to see what other members think.
Bart (Editor MalariaWorld)