Tag: Malaria

The elimination of malaria was a major effort during World War II in the southern United States and that the predecessor of the Centers for Disease Control” was the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas.

“CDC’s predecessor, the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, had been established in 1942 to limit the impact of malaria and other vector-borne diseases (such as murine typhus) during World War II around military training bases in the southern United States and its territories, where malaria was still problematic.The center was located in Atlanta (rather than Washington, DC) because the South was the area of the country with the most malaria transmission.

These efforts were so successful that at the end of the war and at the founding of CDC, one of the initial tasks was to oversee the completion of the elimination of malaria as a major public health problem.”  Visit this article HERE.

This tiny bit of research was prompted by watching Karen Masterson’s interview on www.booktv.org this morning.  She wrote The Malaria Project. This will definitely go on my reading list.

I knew that economic development in the south was impossible without the development and widespread installation of air conditioning in businesses and in homes. Similarly, the elimination or control of malaria was essential to the south becoming a magnet for economic growth post World War II.

Personally I have only known  one person who suffered from marlaria.  He was an Irish Catholic priest at our Newman Club at college.  He had traveled widely in his career and periodically was very ill with recurrence of symptoms.  Hopefully treatment options have improved since then.