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The village of Ihwagi, Kenya, sits in the crowded countryside about 50 miles north of Nairobi, a few miles from Karatina. In March 2008, it was a patchwork of green—small plots of vegetables, light green tea fields, broadleaved banana palms that leaned over small grassy yards. Men in work clothes on the roadside pushed sturdy bicycles up hills, with bundles of vegetables or tan nipia grass tied to the back rack. A middleaged woman in a worn but colorful dress trudged uphill, balancing a white plastic bucket on her head with one hand. Small groups of goats wandered the roadside.
Andrew Githeko was returning to his hometown in the central Kenya highlands to do the work of a disease detective. Because he lives and works hundreds of miles away in western Kenya, Githeko had not yet had the chance to visit clinics and hospitals here to talk to health care workers. Such visits, he says, are the best way to uncover clues about emerging diseases.
Here, more than 1,600 meters up in the Mount Kenya foothills, malaria had never been a problem. If malaria was spreading even here, 1,600 meters up in the Mount Kenya foothills, then global warming was contributing, Githeko believed. His plan was to visit dispensaries (community health clinics staffed by nurses), school clinics, and regional hospitals, where he'd speak with nurses and doctors to find out if malaria had taken hold.
On a bumpy dirt road, Githeko stopped on a bridge over a steep valley. Below was a riverbed dozens of feet wide filled with boulders the size of basketballs. A small stream dribbled along at the bottom—the Ragati River. Githeko shook his head. "This was a huge mountain stream," he said sadly. He swept his arm to indicate the whole valley and the grassy banks above it. "It used to flood here all the time." But since he was a kid, there has been a population explosion in the region, and 10 times more people live in the Mount Kenya region now than a half century ago. They're drawing the river down, but that's only part of the problem. Eighty percent of the glaciers on Mount Kenya have also melted. "The mountain is drying up," he said.
Githeko spotted a stone entranceway on the side of the dirt road. A large sign sat next to the entranceway, handpainted in large red letters: Gatei Health Centre. He parked on the lawn in front of the clinic. A few feet away was a small onestory building with ruststained cinderblock walls and a corrugated tin roof.
Githeko got out of the Land Cruiser as two women appeared at the door. One woman was bigboned, in a lavender skirt, matching top, and beaded necklace; the other was shorter, with almondshaped eyes and smooth skin the color of dark chocolate. A bespectacled man in a white lab coat joined them. Githeko walked over and greeted them. "I'm Dr. Githeko," he said, then paused. "From KEMRI."
The woman in lavender, Margaret Kariuki, identified herself as the district public health officer; the shorter woman, Susan Wangiki, was the clinic's lab technologist; the man in the white coat, Bernard Gikandi, was a nurse. The Gatei Health Centre was the first stop for sick locals. Githeko chatted with the health workers for a few minutes in English, one of two common languages in Kenya, about Githeko's roots in the area, the brandnew university campus up the hill, the famous cool weather of the area. "This place used to be very cold," Githeko said. "Mmm," Margaret murmured in acknowledgment.
Githeko explained his intention to investigate the impacts of global warming. "You know global warming?" he asked. They all nodded. He told them he had come to see what global warming is doing to malaria. Githeko told them of malaria mosquitoes his team had found in nearby Naro Moru in 2005. "We were told that Karatina had a lot of malaria," he said.
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5 Comments
Add CommentThe stock photo is an Aedes mosquito, I think. (abdomen points down.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAccording to National Geographic, "The female Anopheles mosquito is the only insect capable of carrying the human malaria parasite." (abdomen points up.)
I shouldn't get so bugged by stock photos...
Mosquitoes do not depend on climate change rather on weather.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEnough rainfall produces a swarm condition where larvae breed. Of course, a warm humid climate is exceptionally conducive than to a cold condition yet they could sustain below 26 degrees Farh. Siberia and Alaska have mosquitoes.
The differences here is Africa is a populated continent and with the banning of cheap DDT people living in mudhouse and living in the open died.
Millions and billions of dollars are provided to buy anti-malarial medicine and medical assistance but because of political and other form of corruptions many will not get the treatment needed, and die.
Wildstorm, you have that about right! The banning of DDT continues to kill people in Africa. They die every day in large numbers (thanks, in part, to the largely false, Chicken Little story by Rachel Carson – SILENT SPRING etc)! Now we have the newest Chicken Little story, Global Warming, renamed Climate Change, for more propaganda value, rousing public hysteria for political & financial gain. And, we are going to “control” CO2, (how about water vapor)! It is all very PC & unbelievable stupid! Sure, you can put the WEST into an economic tail spin, leaving the field open for the serious polluters like China (building a new coal fired plant every 6 months’ or so, & well on its way toward world domination). Yes, we can always beg China for rare earth metals - China has a strangle hold on the world’s supply; so, we can have China build the largely pathetic green energy devices, which no rational person looking at the facts can believe are ready for prime time (advanced solar panels etc need China’s rare earths – they have us by the proverbials in more ways then one).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBack to public hysteria over “Global Warming” (alias, Climate Change), given warming takes place, on other planets as with ours, likely due to solar cycles – not CO2, it won’t happen overnight (there well be hundreds of years to adjust), and, most importantly, our relatives, likely very distant future relatives – speaking Spanish no doubt, well all rejoice! You see, across the board, “Global Warming” is a blessing for nearly all forms of life! On the other hand, Global Cooling is a curse across the board for nearly all life that matters to us – including human! Yes, we do have reason to fear a killer like Global Cooling – past articles by Scientific American on Nuclear Winter type scenarios will put the fear in you. Not to forget, being hit by an asteroid, &/or a serious volcanic eruption – think of that movie a few years back called The Day After Tomorrow (the title refers to the fact that unlike the very very slow process of heating, cooling can be “the day after tomorrow”. And don’t count on NASA to come to the rescue; our Shuttles are going to be rusting in museums, if not scraped out to the Chinese (thanks to our declining footprint on this plant – by foolish design). Hysteria & delusions are part of the human experience, if not nature, in 1841 a book came out that describes examples from times past, it’s called, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. For something very current & on topic (if you can find it) see a DVD made by an English group, as I recall: “The Tragic Cost Of Global Warming Hysteria – not evil just wrong”, (a little balance for the flock of Chicken Littles).
R. Carlson
It would be good to do a web search....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStudents aim to combat malaria with smartphone software
Several sites are aware of this ap.
I see we have a Merchant of Doubt in our midst. The attack on Silent Spring by the heavily-funded anti-environmental movement is documented in the book Merchants of Doubt.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.merchantsofdoubt.org