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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?

Since the report was published by the IAEA, which is an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation of nuclear technology worldwide, it can be considered a government report. 

Reading this article caused me to do a further, in depth research on Fukushima and what actions led to what happened as well as what transpired during and after the disaster. I also looked into what the emergency response standards are today which led me to look at the IEAE website. I also looked at some of the author's other works that she wrote as well as explored and researched the WANO site. I read into their operating experiences and read about their pledge to "Prevent events by learning from others." I found out they have implemented "significant operating experience reports" as well as "significant event reports" and numerous other safe guards. 

Byron Good is a PhD, BD and professor of Medical anthropology. He is a professor in the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard University. He studies psychotic illness, mental health service development and need in post conflict and post tsunami areas. He also analyzes the cultural meaning behind mental illness across the world. He is highly regarded in his field. 

I researched the statistics and numbers of HIV and and information about demographics as well as prevalence in areas such as Rwanda and Haiti. I also researched the PIH and its efforts globally while browsing their website and read about their Priority Programs, as well as countries they assist. I also researched the authors and took a look at the main author's other articles that he cited this paper in. 

Looking at the references, it is very clear that an extensive amount of work and research went into writing this article. Many of the references are from reputable books on sexual violence and gender based violence and its role in society. Many research articles and studies on gender persecution are cited, as well as works written by other experts in the field on human rights, women rights and sexuality and violence of women are cited. The citations also cover a broad range of time showing depth and span of the information that was used to produce this article. 

I found the testimony of those effected in Liberia to be the most compelling. The personal statements and recountings of the situations that they underwent is what really reinforced the main purpose of the documentary. Seeing footage of people crying in the streets as well as the lack of food and resources, paired with the bodies and caskets is really the most persuasive aspect, in my opinion. It communicated the true devastation that occurred in Liberia during this outbreak. 

This article has been cited in one other paper entitled "Documenting Attacks on Health Workers and Facilities in Armed Conflicts" according to Google scholar.

This health registry relies heavily on collaborations and other organizations. There is actually an entire section of the website dedicated to listing all the organizations that collaborate and work together in order to provide this information for the registry. The registry is a collaborative effort between the US Department of Health and Human Services and NYC. 

There are 3 advisory groups that work with WTC health Registry, they are the Community Advisory Board, the Labor Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Board. The following organizations are also listed as organizations that this registry depends on for research, number and data:

Government

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Scientific 

• Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Boston University – School of Public Health
• City University of New York – Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
• City University of New York - Hunter College
• City University of New York - Queens College
• Columbia University - Mailman School of Public Health
• Columbia University – Medical Center
• Columbia University - New York Psychiatric Institute
• Cornell University
• Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) - Bureau of Health Services
• Fordham University
• HHC WTC Environmental Health Center at Bellevue Hospital Center
• Hospital for Special Surgery
• Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Mount Sinai Medical Center
• New School University
• New York City Police Department - Chief Surgeon's Office
• NYU Medical Center
• New York State Department of Health
• Rutgers University
• San Francisco State University
• State University of New York – Albany – School of Public Health
• State University of New York - Stonybrook
• State University of New York -Stonybrook University Medical Center
• University of California – San Francisco – School of Medicine
• University of Greenwich (United Kingdom)
• Weill Cornell Medicine