Disease Danger Days

David Trammel's picture

Like many of the members here, I can remember when during the Summer months the fogger truck would make its slow way through the suburb I lived in. Its big blower of insecticide laden fog had a distinctive noise to it. You could hear it for blocks. I regret now to say, me and other neighborhood children would sometimes run along behind the truck playing in the cloud of fog.

Luckily I out grew that and other stupid habits, but perhaps our children's children may take it back up.

Climate change is pushing the range of mosquitos northward across the country, and with that spread comes the threat of disease. Hot on the news sites this year is the West Nile virus.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/confirmed-2018-west-nile-virus-cases-mosqu...

I wonder, if along with the pollen indexes you see in local weather reports, are we headed towards the time when we also have a "Disease Danger Days" chart?

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-faces-a-rise-in-mosquito-disease-d...

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I'm sure you have heard of the drink, a "Gin and Tonic". Ever wonder at its name.

See when the British expanded their empire into countries in the equatorial region, like India and Africa, they ran smack dab into Malaria, a dilbertating disaes that most of the native population had grown accustom to, but for which the British had little defense. Many of the British adventurers and bureacrats that found their way to the "Colonies" returned home with the lingering effects of having gotten the disease. If it didn't kill them there in the first place.

Luckily, the bark of the South American cinchona tree contains a chemical called "Quinine", which was found to treat malaria. Quinine has a bitter taste and so the British began mixing gin with the tonic to make it more tasty.

I wonder what the beverage of choice will be in the next century to ward off our next malaria?