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Reference ID U271JLL

Headline Malaria in the WHO region of Americas

Description Mexico waged war against malaria.

This was war, but to save lives, not to sacrifice them, and it called for the thoroughness of military organization in planning and logistics. Mexico, which decided to eradicate malaria, and deliver its 30,000,000 inhabitants from the disease which crippled empires and destroyed civilizations, put it on a war footing. Distribution of supplies throughout the length and breadth of Mexico was directed from an operational headquarters. Spray teams were deployed as though they were combat troops. "Supreme Headquarters" was WHO's Regional Office for the Americas, the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB), which saw Mexico as a sector of the wider battle-front of all Latin America. The UN Children's Fund provided equipment. There were motorized columns and "malarial cavalry" with mounted spraymen and packhorses to climb the bridle-paths into the High Sierras. Khaki-clad men in paratroop boots and helmets boasted the badges and flags of the National Commission for the Eradication of Malaria (CNEP, Comisión Nacional para la Erradicación del Paludismo).

One thousand feet above Jicaltepec is the Cerro Concha area, situated in a thick, tropical forest. Cerro Concha comprises 35 houses, scattered by 2 and 3 - mainly huts made of wood with palm-tree or sugar-cane roofs. Such areas, which are difficult to get at, are sprayed with Dieldrin, which is stronger than DDT and lasts a year. The arrival of the team is an event in the lives of the villagers of Cerro Concha.

Asset date 01/01/1958

Country, area, WHO office Mexico

City Cerro Concha

WHO Region AMRO

Consent No

File size 1.60 MB

Visibility class:

Public

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