Malaria has been a major health problem in Swaziland for as long as both historical records and the Swazi themselves have recorded. Colonial records illustrate the problem of malaria from a British perspective, which provides interesting insight into the study and response to the disease. Alan William Pim wrote one such document, titled “Financial and economic situation of Swaziland. Report of the commission appointed by the secretary of state for dominion affairs, January, 1932”. As the title suggests, it details the economic atmosphere of Swaziland, which in turn reveals the relationship between political atmosphere, environment, and health in Swaziland. (FIX INTRO ARGUE HOW THIS IS HISTORICALLY RELEVANT)
Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa and is situated between the Republic of South Africa to the west, south and north, and Mozambique to the east. It is divided into four regions well defined from west to east. These regions are distinguished by elevation, climate, soil quality and vegetation. From west to east they are the highveld, middleveld, lowveld, and Lubombo range. The highveld averages 3,500 feet in altitude, the middleveld and Lubombo range about 2,000 feet, and the lowveld 1,000 feet, respectively. (PRIMARY PG. 7) & (BOOTH PG 81) (look up system of measurement) Generally, in years with higher malaria occurrences, the number of cases increases as the altitude decreases.
The link between malaria and its causes has not been clearly defined, yet can largely be inferred based on the information in the colonial reports. Most colonial sources claim that rainfall is solely responsible for and directly correlated to the intensity of a Malaria outbreak in any given year. However, it becomes clear even throug...
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...ions were bad. These documents reveal that health care intentions, while not regarded as highly for Africans and Europeans, remained a priority for colonial advisors. This would become particularly important in combatting malaria and resisting future epidemics.
Like much of colonial Africa, conditions in Swaziland were perfect for malaria epidemic for several reasons. While heavy rainfall produced ideal breeding grounds for the Anopheles gambiae mosquito, drought, famine, population migration and colonial policy played key roles, as well. The subordination of Swazi economic interests left them vulnerable to disaster due to drastic climate change, which in turn made them more susceptible to malaria epidemic. The British colonial views of such a disaster affect immediate and future disease response, as was evident following the malaria epidemic of 1932 in Swaziland.
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 160th out of 182 countries on the Human Development Index. Malawi has extremely low life expectancy and high infant mortality which couldn’t be controlled yet. It’s one of least developed nations in the world; however, some of improvements have
... to. Since they had been exposed to these diseases, their bodies were immune. When the people of the America’s and the South African cape came in contact with these germs, they were automatically killed in large numbers. The African’s knew how to avoid Malaria by living in dry areas since mosquitoes were responsible for spreading the diseases to begin with. However, Malaria was the number one killer for children under the age of five (Guns, Germs, and Steel Video).
As Tropical Health and Colonial Health portray, Public Health originates from bourgeois needing to sustain and proliferate the many disadvantaged and enslaved subjects below them, and in doing so protecting their own health and sustaining extractive and capitalistic economies. I begin my case study into the limitations of the ethical framework of the Public health researcher with this historic background to qualify the cases I will be presenting, as it could be argued that the cases presented are not representative of public health because they do not fall into current paradigm of global health. However, I believe a temporal analysis is necessary to maintain context for these issues and to create a more accurate image of public health as it is today, through the analysis what values it left
“Cholera swept the district. The epidemic had started in November in the southern region… A farmer traveled to a funeral in Kasiya… and brought the sickness with him. Within days, a dozen were dead in that village, and hundreds were infected across the district” (Kamkwamba and Mealer 148). The poor sanitation Malawi has, and its poor hygiene made it easier for cholera to spread through the country. Malawians were suffering. Cholera was spreading at an incredible rate. Due to the poor hygiene water was easily contaminated with the feces of infected people. So many people died that the corpse had to be buried in pairs to speed up the process. William’s family was extremely careful so none of them got infected. Every morning William and his family could see infected people walking towards the clinic. As days passed more and more people started to disappear, the village started looking like a ghost town. Cholera was wiping out Malawi village by village, no one was safe. However, people still had hope, and miraculously a few days after cholera arrived to the village. The clinic started giving out chlorine tablets. “To keep us safe, the clinic in the trading center began giving out free chlorine to treat our drinking water” ( Kamkwamba and Mealer 149). After some harsh days, the clinic started to give out chlorine tablets. Giving out this tablets saved a lot of people, since the tablets allowed people to treat their drinking water. Many families like Williams where going through a rough time. They were not only worried about getting infected, they also had to gather food to eat, which was lacking. After some horrendous days the distribution of the tablets was a turning point for the good. As the days passed less and less people got infected. After a few days life in the village was back to normal, except for the part that a great portion of the village
In a poem written by Rudyard Kipling, “Take up a White Man’s Burden… The savage wars of peace… Fill full the mouth of Famine… And bid the sickness cease,” (Doc. F). This poem illustrates that the European powers intended to aid Africa and be a cure to their issues. At the same time, judging from the words above, Europe also saw it as an obstacle, perhaps even a hindrance. Whether that is true or not, the article Technology and Imperialism quantifies, “Method of getting quinine from cinchona tree bark,” as well as evidence portraying the making of revolutionary weapons such as machine guns (Doc. C). With such technological advancements including a cure for a deadly disease, Europe had it’s opportunity to colonize Africa, and took it. They were ahead in every way possible, and therefore inhabited Africa, even if meant to support
Malaria has been credited to bringing down whole civilizations. Alexander the Great, in 323 B.C., was afflicted with the fevers which rendered him lifeless and crushed his dream of uniting the regions of his world. The fevers, heavy set in Rome, instilled such fear in the Catholic Church that the Vatican fled to Avignon, France for 68 years. Commoners with malaria were left too listless to work. Field hands and farmers neglected the crops. The fevers may well have been a hindrance to the progress of agriculture.
In likeness to Aids, the malaria virus can be in your body for up to
The summer was hot and dry in 1793, which made the streams very low, equipping the insects with an exceptional breeding ground. By July, the incredible amount of mosquitoes swarmed around the docks. Refugees escaping the Caribbean Islands brought the fever with them too. The mosquitoes multiplied like crazy and infected thousands. Doctors and scientists were unaware of the link between the bugs and the fast growing illness, so no one knew what to do.
Malaria (also called biduoterian fever, blackwater fever, falciparum malaria, plasmodium, Quartan malaria, and tertian malaria) is one of the most infectious and most common diseases in the world. This serious, sometimes-fatal disease is caused by a parasite that is carried by a certain species of mosquito called the Anopheles. It claims more lives every year than any other transmissible disease except tuberculosis. Every year, five hundred million adults and children (around nine percent of the world’s population) contract the disease and of these, one hundred million people die. Children are more susceptible to the disease than adults, and in Africa, where ninety percent of the world’s cases occur and where eighty percent of the cases are treated at home, one in twenty children die of the disease before they reach the age of five. Pregnant women are also more vulnerable to disease and in certain parts of Africa, they are four times as likely to contract the disease and only half as likely to survive it.
African governments have given in to the whim’s of international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in social and health policies, and with this, has come a shift away from former emphasis on social justice and equitable market efficiency to public health services for all now being perceived as a major threat ...
During his employment as a medical official the reality of reservation life could not be ignored. Although he must have wanted to help his people there were many difficulties of the time. They were far away from Western civilization and supply to medical equipment. The epidemics of small pox, measles, and influenza were attacking the people. He could not al...
Many people in advanced industrialized nations are often unaware of infectious diseases that plague underdeveloped countries. This is primarily due to factors that are so often taken for granted like having proper sanitation, adequately treated water, properly prepared food, easy access to medical care, and economic viability. The sad truth is that many of these infectious diseases could easily be prevented if the countries where they run most rampant had only a few of the factors mentioned above. The concentration of this paper will be to focus on one such disease named Cholera and its impact on the country of Zambia, Africa.
Swaziland is one the last remaining absolute monarchies of the world. A landlocked mountainous country, found between South Africa and Mozambique. A country with a meagre population of 1.2 million (UN, 2012). It is a country that is well known of its richness in culture and tradition - that attracts thousands of people across the globe to have a taste of its cultural beauty. Swaziland is endowed with iron, hydropower, coal and forestry. In addition, it has a small gold and diamond deposits. Swaziland has an excellent soil for sugar cane cultivation which makes it to be the leading export of the country. Subsistence agriculture employs about 70% of the populations because of the favourable weather conditions of the country. Indeed, Swaziland has a diverse economy and comparative advantages to its neighbouring countries. However, Swaziland average Gross Domestic Product is lower than most of the Sub-Saharan countries irrespective of its
London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.
According to the current status of medical geography, the two major traditions focus on 1) the studies of health services delivery and 2) the studies of disease patterns, including disease ecology. This symbolizes how the relations between people and the environment are closely linked with cultural ecology. Yet, as previously mentioned, both cultural and political ecology define the political ecology of disease. All of these factors interconnect because of the microscopic aspects within an individual’s life. The same factors that affect the health of an individual, affect the probability of them being at risk of being at risk of diseases. In my perspective, the relationships between the political, economic and social characteristics and relations, the environment, need to be confined to capitalism and colonialism. To be more specific, throughout history, both capitalism and colonialism have influenced an immense affect on the societies who are suffering from health disparities and dying from diseases. A great example of how environment, economy, politics and human behavior, but yet capitalism and colonialism have primarily contributed to the development and increase of diseases is through Dr. Mayer’s example of malaria in Trinidad. When the country was in stage of development and transition from agriculture to