Fumigation - of Everything!!!

Today the seminary is being fumigated. This is an awful nuisance at one level but a great service at another. On the plus side, it means that the campus will be mosquito-free for the next several months. This isn't just about the fact that mosquitos are a pest, but is actually a very serious health issue. Two diseases, in particular, chicungunya and dengue fevers are of particular concern.

Chicungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that causes inflammation of the brain. This is a form of encepahalitis. It can cause severe damage to the nervous system. Apparently, its effects vary from patient to patient (I'm not sure why) but it is certainly a very debilitating illness. Dengue (pronounced dengay) is another very unpleasant disease that mosquitos spread. Having once had dengue myself I can testify to the fact that it is very unpleasant. It left me totally flattened - entirely weak, with pain in the bones and a high fever that caused very scary hallucinations. Dengue has some similarities to malaria except that, unlike malaria, it doesn't recur. There are two forms of dengue - the kind that I had, which hits you and eventually wears off; and then there is haemorragic dengue which causes internal bleeding and is often fatal - it all depends on the mosquito that gets you!!! Even the type that I had, however, has long term consequences - I was told that it would affect my memory for about three years, and it did; I wasn't able to read a book or keep track of appointments without the aid of a written diary for about three years after I had the dengue.

Mosquitos, in fact, are the single biggest killer of people in the world. Their control/ eradication is considered to be one of the most important challenges in health care at a worldwide level.

As always, nothing is entirely positive. The fumigation of the seminary means that every inch of it has to be sprayed - inside and out. This means that everything gets covered with a fine white film which is the residue of the chemical used. While this is supposed to be non-dangerous, and guaranteed non-toxic, I don't believe it. Anything that can kill every insect in this place has to be absolutely noxious. I suspect that there are unrecognised consequences for human health.

I do remember when I was in Ecuador noticing that a lot of the chemicals used as insecticides are banned in Europe. When I inquired about this I was told that they were cheap and that European companies sold them to South American countries from stockpiles that had built up over the years. The supply would eventually dry up but, until then, Europe's toxic waste was to be used as insecticide on the plants that people in Ecuador were eating. Ironically, of course, many of these plants end up back in Europe - chocolate, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, passion fruit, mandarins, coffee etc: I guess what goes around comes around!!!