If you bring up the topic of Malaria with most Germans and Europeans....they would all say that it's a terrible disease and that they are happy to have eradicated it back in the 1950s. You might get to some point of asking how, and they'd shuffle around and finally admit that they used various pesticides (some pretty bad) to reach a level of satisfaction.
If you went to a Malaria doctor and asked about the numbers? Well...they'd typically say that signs start showing up about a week to four weeks....after exposure. With all the drugs around....if you get into the hospital early-on and they note your problem....you won't die. However, the same doctors note that with the disease comes respiratory problems with a quarter of adults with the disease, and near fifty percent of kids will have serious respiratory issues. In affect, you can die from the mosquito-borne disease if you don't get diagnosed early-on.
Why bring this up? Well....2017 was a pretty hot year in Italy and Malaria has made a comeback. Shocking? Yeah.
The news folks brought it up this week....an Italian kid (4-years old) has died from the disease. The first one in decades in Italy.
The kid had been with the family on a trip to Bibione....on the Adriatic coast near Venice. By the time that the family realized the serious nature and got the kid to the hospital? It was too late.
Doctors are a bit puzzled. They note that it's almost (note almost used) impossible for Malaria to pass from person to person. Yet they are exploring this idea. The old and reliable answer was that it always passed from Mosquito to human. If this were to change? It would amount to a big deal....but no one is suggesting this possible....just a theory.
Why bring this idea up? No one thinks there's a big mosquito problem. I sat and read through some historical pieces, and noted the Typhoid-Mary episode from the 1907 period in the US. Mary Mallon was held in quarantine for three years after the health folks came to realize that a human could be a carrier of typhoid. It's a lengthy story of Mary....she was a cook and after the long discussion with Mary about getting out of quarantine by ditching the cook-profession....she agreed. That lasted roughly three years and because she went back to cooking and passing on typhoid....she ended up in permanent quarantine (until she died in 1938).
All of this is worrying some health folks and there's a major investigation underway. The hyped up commentary? Well....climate change triggered the return of the mosquito issue. Naturally. Unless some science geek proves some human-to-human passing....they'd like to stick with the normal blame solutions.
The odd thing is that there's been only one case noted in the news media....just this one single 4-year-old girl. Oddly as well....no one else in the family has shown an issue (at least what the news folks say).
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