Mosquito Eradication Quotes

“Amateurs are fond of advising that all practical measures should be postponed pending carrying out detailed researches upon the habits of anophelines, the parasite rate of localities, the effect of minor works, and so on. In my opinion, this is a fundamental mistake. It implies the sacrifice of life and health on a large scale while researches which may have little real value and which may be continued indefinitely are being attempted… In practical life we observe that the best practical discoveries are obtained during the execution of practical work and that long academic discussions are apt to lead to nothing but academic profit. Action and investigation together do more than either of these alone.”
― Ronald Ross, Researches on malaria

“Recognizing its importance, Aedes aegypti should be studied as a long-term national, regional, and world problem rather than as a temporary local threat to the communities suffering at any given moment from yellow fever, dengue or other aegypti-borne disease. No one can foresee the extent of the future threat of Aedes aegypti to mankind as a vector of known virus diseases, and none can foretell what other virus diseases may yet affect regions where A. aegypti is permitted to remain.”
― Fred Lowe Soper, Building the Health Bridge: Selections from the Works of Fred L. Soper

“Aedes aegypti, which transmits yellow fever, is one of the feeblest species in its ability for flight and it is at once blown away and destroyed when it gets into a breeze. It therefore seldom wanders from the house in which it was bred.”
― William Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama

“In one respect New Orleans has set an example for all the world in the fight against yellow fever. The first impression was the complete organization of the citizens and the rational and reasonable way in which the fight has been conducted by them. With a tangible enemy in view, the army of defense could begin to fight rationally and scientifically. The... spirit in which the citizens of New Orleans sallied forth to win this fight strikes one who has been witness to the profound gloom, distress, and woe that cloud every other epidemic city. Rupert Boyce, Dean of Liverpool School of Tropical Diseases, 1905”
― Rupert Boyce

“The use of vaccine in the control of yellow fever should occupy more or less the same place that typhoid fever vaccine has in the control of typhoid fever. No sanitary authority would desire to substitute typhoid vaccine for the supply of pure water and food, so we must not accept the yellow fever vaccine as a substitute for the elimination of Aedes aegypti. The vaccine provides individual protection for the person who cannot be protected by more general measures.”
― Fred Lowe Soper

“The case which I reported on September 26, 1901, was really the last which occurred in Havana. Of course we did not know it at the time, but this case marked the first conquest of yellow fever in an endemic center; the first application of the mosquito theory to practical sanitary work in any disease.”
― William Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama

“The work directed against mosquitoes carrying yellow fever had an equally good effect upon malaria, especially when anti-anopheles work was extended to the suburbs of the city. Before the year 1901 Havana had yearly from 300 to 500 deaths from malaria, rising as high in 1898 as 1,900 deaths. Since 1901 there has been a steady decrease in the malaria death rate until 1912, when there were only four deaths. Four deaths from malaria in a city in the tropics the size of Havana, about 300,000 population, means the extinction of malaria in that city.”
― William Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama

“The mosquitoes that carry malaria and transmit it to humans often become resistant to pesticides. Mosquitoes reproduce quickly, which means every generation has a lot of chances to produce mutants who can defeat humanity’s best weapons. Here’s one way we could win the arms race:

Female mosquitoes often only mate once. What if we could trick them into mating with a sterile male? This should mean fewer cute little baby mosquitoes,* which means less malaria transmission. An early strategy to make sterile male mosquitoes was to expose them to radiation. This did indeed sterilize the males, but well . . . it turns out that when you expose a guy to a huge dose of radiation, it may increase his chances of sleeping alone.”
― Kelly Weinersmith, Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything