Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Malaria and the Mosquito
We have learned through Susan Sontag's book, Illness as a Metaphor, how many diseases take on a meaning that suppresses its illness that it inflicts. We have seen through numerous texts how representations and association of devices are internalized in society and the people inflicted. Through our TB, cancer, and plague readings, we have seen how the desire is internalized in society and how it affects other people, however, Conaway brings the interesting perspective of the mosquito through the poem "Silence, Anopheles". In that poem, we see how the mosquito is simply surviving like every other animal and is unaware of the desire it carries inside. How do our own association of Malaria and the mosquito affect how our society views mosquito ridden places and tropical areas? Are the representations of Malaria only placed on the parasite itself, or is the mosquito closely tied in with the associations given to Malaria? Why or why not? How do the representations of Malaria and the Mosquito affect how researchers and health care professionals approach prevention, treatment, and ultimately trying to find a cure of Malaria? Are there examples in Conaway's' poems that support your answer?
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In terms of malaria research, I was really struck by this line from the poem “Die Never Always”: “What cauldron of tenure and legacy may stir / the crisp white sails of lab jackets to wake and sleep only after wrinkled / with the dry sweat of loud desperations from / too-damn-far-away-to-give-a-shit-reallys.” In his poems, Conaway criticizes researchers who seek to eradicate the disease, yet remain isolated in their labs, distanced and self-satisfied with their work, and not producing the successes they predicted (“‘An effective vaccine has been 5 years around the corner for the last 50 or 500 years’” – researcher from Cambridge University).
ReplyDeleteI think that even more than the plasmodium parasite, the mosquito itself has become the most recognizable symbol of malaria. People who are not familiar with or knowledgeable about malaria, whether in geographic regions that are directly affected or regions that are not directly affected by the disease, tend to hear generic facts and statistics about malaria: the signs and symptoms, how many people are affected, how many people die. By associating a clear and simple symbol with the disease—the mosquito—the power and gravity of the disease is amplified to the average person, whether for the purpose of simple education about malaria or for use/exploitation as advertisement. The mosquito is so small, it often goes unnoticed, yet it unintentionally and unknowingly has the potential to be highly destructive.
Since most of the time malaria is present in concentrated areas of the world (rural, poor, tropical and subtropical areas), our society doesn’t see it as a prominent threat. We tend not to pay too much attention to it, since we know we have the money and the resources to protect ourselves and fight the disease if it ever becomes a problem in the U.S. Therefore, we tend to view mosquito-ridden places as having less resources and more socioeconomic instability.
ReplyDeleteBecause the researchers and health care professionals know that our society is and will always be prepared for malaria due to our resources and economic standing, they feel as if they are in no rush to try to find a cure that may help other countries suffering from malaria. In the poem “Vaccine,” the narrator who is standing before a lab of scientists comments, “Although solutions may on the other side of the blur, I am far closer to the problems.” Conway criticizes the inefficiency of the scientists and researchers who don’t feel the need to look into a disease that only seems harmful on the other side of the world.
ReplyDeleteBecause the associations with malaria include dirtier, poorer places, we tend to think that the parts of tropical áreas not dedicated to resorts are just full of poverty and sickness. We also have this fear of most bugs in foreign places since they could carry anything from malaria to yellow fever, and this fear drives the associations deeper. We tie malaria not so much to the parasite as to the mosquito, as depicted in “Silence, Anopheles” which narrates from the vector’s perspective. I doubt many people would really think about the parasite over the mosquito. The mosquito is, after all, a bit more tangible and much easier to kill.
Researchers and doctors seem to know that people are more likely able to avoid the vector, and by extension the parasite, if they can use the scariest associations with malaria to scare them. Malaria means death in its darkest association, as illustrated in “Store,” in which actors depicting the effects of the disease “all fell to the floor and convulsed and then came to a still” (Conaway 12). This acting out of a rapid death was meant to scare the viewers into buying mosquito nets to prevent infection. While the reason for such measures in this poem was for profit, similar practices are used to get people to proceed with caution in tropical areas that could harbor malaria-bearing mosquitos.
I think that society's implications on the mosquito make it appear as useless, a nuisance, wicked, disease ridden, when really it serves a purpose as food to birds which play a huge part in plant growth by carrying and dropping seeds. While I agree that mosquitoes are annoying and dumb creatures, I do believe that they too play a vital role in growth in the environment, serving with the sole purpose to be eaten. I don't think that everyone immediately associates a mosquito with Malaria, but they do associate them with discomfort, and therefore make them a pest. I also don't think that people really think about them in terms of geography. For example, I don't plan a vacation and think, "oh what about the mosquitoes?" Lastly, I don't think that associations with mosquitoes and Malaria stop doctors from helping patients or researches from attempting to find a cure, but give them an incentive to fight against it.
ReplyDeleteI think for many of us we don't really see Malaria as a huge threat because we don't live in the areas where it is most present. Like a lot of people said when they were describing their GIP trips, it becomes a lot more "real" once you are actually in a situation where you could actually get Malaria. But since it is in mostly poor and rural areas, it doesn't really pose a threat to us.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of whether the mosquito receives the same associations that Malaria does, I 100% believe that. When I think about Malaria, although I know better, I immediately say to myself mosquito=Malaria. In my mind the parasite goes completely over my head. I think for a lot of other people that same thing happens to them. We see the mosquito the same way that we see Malaria, which brings a lot of bad associations with it.
Whenever you ask someone about malaria, the first word that comes out of their mouth is almost always "mosquito". Even if people don't know about the signs and symptoms of the disease, or about the parasite that actually causes the disease, the extent to which it affects people's lives, the treatments, or anything really about the disease itself, they will know that you get it from mosquitos.
ReplyDeleteIn his poem "Silence, Anopheles", Conway differentiates between the mosquito and the parasite that actually causes malaria. For example, for mosquitos "It's risky business being / the silent messenger / of bad news / when you don't know the bad news is consuming you, too" which shows how the mosquitos are blamed for the suffering that accompanies malaria, but really it is just the parasite within them that is also hurting the mosquito itself. Humans don't care about the distinction between the mosquito and the parasite because we only care about are own pain and suffering. Conway writes that "to them you are what you have" because from the perspective of a human, it doesn't matter what causes the disease, mosquitos will be blamed for it despite the fact that it is the bacteria inside them that causes malaria.
The blame that is put on the mosquito also affects the way people treat and prevent the disease like the men who try to prevent malaria with mosquito nets in the poem "Store". While trying to demonstrate how the nets block mosquitos though, they are trivializing and making a farce out of the serious disease.
ReplyDeleteI would certainly argue that mosquitoes are intimately involved in associations of malaria. Part of this lies in the fact that we don’t ascribe any redeeming qualities to mosquitoes; they are viewed entirely as parasites that rely solely on humans in order to exist. Similarly, associations about malaria itself are also negative. I think that this allows the disease and the vector to be profoundly connected; if we had some positive associations regarding mosquitoes, we might be loathe to connect them to a disease that only some of them carry.
We also talked a little bit in class about the work of the Gates foundation in attempting to eradicate – or at least drastically lessen – mosquito populations worldwide. I think examining language the Gates foundation uses in talking about mosquitoes is also insightful when discussing how the disease is viewed in our society. When confronting the malaria epidemic, often solutions attempt to target the mosquitoes themselves while other solutions target the disease itself (i.e. the creation of drugs). Clearly, mosquitoes and malaria are often words used interchangeably.
I think the first thing that comes to mind of a country plagued with mosquito-vector disease would think of danger. The reality is that much like what Conaway said in his poem Landscape, ""Even here where I am if I get bit and do get malaria, I'll be okay because of where I come from and who I know and what is already in my system. I am here, but I am not really here as the locals are, and as much as I try I never will be." The truth the real issues are for the people that live there rather than tourists or people traveling through from wealthier countries.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the mosquito is not the true illness, the parasite and mosquito are inseparable and therefore you can't remove the illness from the insect. For this reason many of the only treatments are to avoid being bitten and use insect repellent and mosquito nets.
From a first world viewpoint, Malaria comes across the news rarely and its significance to us is almost nonexistent. We do not view mosquitoes and mosquito bites as declarations of death, but rather as nuisances. Our version of the disease and that of someone who has suffered from the disease vary greatly. In the Poem "Landscape", Conaway writes about a POV where a doctor or aids person understands that they will not have to suffer the same way that a person living in Africa would. Conaway writes "Even here where I am if I get bit and do get malaria, I'll be okay" (54). To answer Alex's last question, in the poem "Vaccine", Conaway writes that even though people are working hard, the vaccine still does not exist.
ReplyDeleteAs many others have pointed out, malaria is not commonly seen as an imminent threat because as a first world country, it is just not thought of. The disconnect between us as perceivers of the dangers of malaria and those who live through the threat of malaria every day leads to the metaphors that are placed on the disease and the parasite itself. However, these metaphors that we place may be different from those by the people who interact with the parasite-carrying mosquitoes daily.
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