MALARIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 July 1943, Page 4

MALARIA

FORTUNATELY malaria is a disease known in New Zealand by name rather than through experience. To us it is commonly associated with tropical swamps and jungles which have always seemed far away from this land of temperate climate. Dr. David Miller, of the Cawthron Institute, in his lecture to the Nelson Philosophical Society, has reminded us that the Pacific war has brought us much closer to those jungles and swamps and therefore to the mala-ria-carrying mosquito. In some combat areas this disease has depleted the ranks both of our forces and the enemy—w r ho appear as susceptible to it as we are—more than actual battle casualties. The Australians in New Guinea and the Americans in the Solomons have suffered appreciably from it. In the fall of Bataan it is considered that malaria rather than the Japanese beat MacArthur’s defenders, who were cut off from quinine supplies.

Dr. Miller assessed the chances of malaria mosquitoes being brought to these shores by ship or plane and establishing themselves here, thus exposing the civil population to malaria risk. He concluded that this was quite possible, a statement from an expert which need cause no undue alarm but which underlines the need for preventive precautions. The northern part of the Dominion would prove a much more congenial habitat for these mosquitoes than the south and it appears doubtful whether they could live in the colder and less humid localities. Breeding takes place only in water and the Health Department is already taking measures to eliminate breeding grounds where alien mosquitoes are most likely to become established. No one in New Zealand wants this tropical invader to become a creature of more than academic interest. Dr. Miller would use the possibility of its arrival as an incentive to prosecute a campaign of extermination against its indigenous cousins. This, he says, would be easy by organised effort. Our mosquitoes do not carry disease but their bite is much worse than their buzz. It can be very uncomfortable. Dr. Miller also charges them with hampering the development of some localities, thus creating economic loss as well as physical pain.