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As a researcher, I’m interested in the political, ecological, and cultural debates around mosquito-borne diseases and the solutions proposed to mitigate them.

When we received the task, my first impulse was to investigate about the contemporary effects of anthropogenic climate change in mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans. But I was afraid to make the same mistake that I did in my PhD research. I wrote my PhD proposal while based in the US, more specifically in New England, during the Zika epidemic, and proposed to understand how scientists were studying ecological climate change and mosquitoes in Brazil. However, once I arrived in the country the political climate was a much more pressing issue, with the dismantling of health and scientific institutions.

Thus, after our meeting yesterday, and Jason Ludwig’s reminder that the theme of our Field Campus is the plantation, I decided to focus on how it related to mosquitoes in New Orleans.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito and the yellow fever virus it can transmit are imbricated in the violent histories of settler-colonialism and slavery that define the plantation economy. The mosquito and the virus arrived in the Americas in the same ships that brought enslaved peoples from Africa. The city of New Orleans had its first yellow fever epidemic in 1796, with frequent epidemics happening between 1817 and 1905. What caused New Orleans to be the “City of the Dead,” as Kristin Gupta has indicated, was yellow fever. However, as historian Urmi Engineer Willoughby points out, the slave trade cannot explain alone the spread and persistance of the disease in the region: "Alterations to the landscape, combined with demographic changes resulting from the rise of sugar production, slavery, and urban growth all contributed to the region’s development as a yellow fever zone." For example, sugar cultivation created ideal conditions for mosquito proliferation because of the extensive landscape alteration and ecological instabilities, including heavy deforestation and the construction of drainage ditches and canals.

Historian Kathryn Olivarius examines how for whites "acclimatization" to the disease played a role in hierarchies with “acclimated” (immune) people at the top and a great mass of “unacclimated” (non-immune) people and how for black enslaved people "who were embodied capital, immunity enhanced the value and safety of that capital for their white owners, strengthening the set of racialized assumptions about the black body bolstering racial slavery."

As I continue to think through these topics, I wonder how both the historical materialities of the plantation and the contemporary anthropogenic changes might be influencing mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans nowadays? And more, how the regions’ histories of race and class might still be shaping the effects of these diseases and how debates about them are framed?

The article cites various studies and uses the experiences of organizations in order to help plan for the future. The authors use the WHO and the CDC as these examples of experience. They draw upon the AIDS crisis as an example of global outreach and of a public health crisis. Innovation in science is discussed and ongoing research experiments. DOTS (Directly-Observed Treatment, Short Term) program is discussed as well and its shortcomings in dealing with TB.

They also use many examples of situations in which violence against humanitarian workers and facilities occurred. 

They stress the importance of recordkeeping and how that has the ability to change the future outcomes of safety. I would imagine they stress it so intensely due to issues they had in the past. They also have the challenge of dealing with public sectors and workforces not in their jurisdiction. While they are helpful for those they cover, those they do not provide concern in that they can't protect the workers and avoid accidents and emergencies. 

I can't find anything about how it was received back in the day, but with the current refugee problem facing the world, there is dispute about how to treat refugees and other immigration issues. Rhetoric used to describe refugees - especially those from Syria - has caused a lot of xenophobia around the world and various problems regarding immigration.

It's targeted to individuals who want to become leaders in times of disaster. Because this program targets the role and development of leadership and resilience as a means of producing adequate and effective outcomes, this program targets students who have high integrity and leadership skills. 

This entire article discusses the inequities of mental health support and the long-term issues this causes. It also discusses some crises and catastrophes that have occurred as a result, such as a school shooting that left 4 people dead and 7 injured. 

The app has one main list within which users can choose what they need assistance with. Within those exist further flow charts and ways for physicians to decide appropriate patient care. 

The author's name is Sonja D. Schmid. She is an associate professor at Virginia Tech teaching primarily STS courses. She does research pertaining the history and organization of nuclear industries in the Former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe. One of her areas of specialization include nuclear emergency response, which makes her a good source for information regarding Fukushima.