The price people pay for ignorance It would seem that it will be an intractable endemic disease in Afghanistan, so long as poverty, ignorance (aka lack of education for WOMEN, boys AND girls, superstition (aka a an irrational unfounded belief in supernatural entities), corrupt governance, lack of funds and commitment to public health, fratricidal conflict between tribes and warlords…..need I go on???? The disease is treatable, it is, is possible to mitigate it with prophylactic measures (insecticides, insect repellants, insect screening and mosquito netting) and it can be minimised by simple measures as sanitation and effective hygiene. Scientific research into developing counter measures probably wouldn’t go astray either. <FONT face=" border=" alt="" 0?><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comThe following quotation from the article is probably most damning: “…Most victims are women and children. WHO said women and children are more vulnerable because they mostly live indoors at night, where the sand flies prefer to bite, and are therefore more susceptible than men who are generally outside the home…” http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/10/15/disfiguring_tropical_disease_surges_in_afghanistan/spent It has been suggested that if men were forced to bear children, there might be fewer children born in this world, I would suggest that if the men spent their time at home with their wives and children instead of gallivanting around the country side, taking pot shots at each other in tribal warfare, or taking pot shots at the Coalition forces, perhaps they may be a little more motivated to actually doing something about it….but a people wedded to religious superstition aren’t likely to do so in a hurry, more’s the pity. Chelloveck
