Epidemic Threatens Calcutta

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7240, 21 August 1933, Page 8

Epidemic Threatens Calcutta

INVASION OF DISEASE-BEARING MOSQUITOES. United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. CALCUTTA, August 18. What the health authorities describe as a state of emergency exists in Calcutta owing to the continued advance on the city of the mosquito which is a carrier of malignant malaria. Two years ago, as a result of a similar warning, large areas on the outskirts of the city were sprayed with insecticide both by hand and by aeroplane. It was hoped to keep the mosquitoes from breeding outside, but it is now reported to have penetrated the city confines. There is grave danger of a malaria outbreak in epidemic form. Malaria is characterized by intermittent paroxysms of fever and is caused by a parasite which inhabits the red corpuscles of the blood. Part of its life cycle is spent in man and part in the mosquito so that man may be infected by the bite of an infected mosquito and a healthy mosquito may be infected by biting an infected man. As male mosquitoes are vegetarians, only the female convey the disease. About thirty varieties of mosquito, chiefly that known as Anopheles, have been found to carry the parasite, of which three types attack man, causing three distinct forms of malaria. Marshy soil, high temperatures and humidity favour the development of the mosquito and the incidence of the disease.