Search

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?

There have been 28 citations at this time, most concerning the concept of biosecurity. Many of them also focus on elements of governing bodies and their respective management of risks and emergency plans.

Many of the sources cited in the bibliography seem to be from various news sources. This includes New York Times, New York Daily Tribune, Chicago Daily Tribune, and Chicago Chronicle, to name a few. There are also several historical reports or accounts of the events described by Dr. Knowles. This indicates a focus on primary literature and sources when describing the historical disasters. There also appear to be several transcripts of federal agency or committee interactions and reports. 

The web platform appears to be a space to compile stories and information from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. The primary goal seems to be informing the public about the hurricanes, specifically the aftermath in the days and months following the flooding. It serves as a method of remembrance for what occurred (the flooding, death toll, lack of appropriate and timely response, the struggles of survivors) and as a way to warn that these problems will continue to occur in the future. In the last few days, Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Caribbean, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It will take weeks to return power to all who have lost it, and exact damage tolls will take months to compile. Although each time, with each pass of destruction, our responses seem to be improving, the disasters continue to accumulate-- despite warnings such as this site. 

According to NCBI, this report has been cited 40 times by various other reports. This includes several longitudinal studies, a piece detailing climate change and public health, and several more review articles detailing overarching effects of disasters. Additionally, it has been cited in several shorter pieces focusing on specific disaster events and their subsequent effects on specific populations-- such as the effects of Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the physical health of adult women in So Louisiana. 

The film stands very well on its own. As a biology major with particular interest in human physiology, I would have liked to see more information on what defects/cancers/diseases are most prevalent with the listed contaminants. Moreover, chronic illness from contaminated water could also demonstrate harsh effects on renal and circulatory systems; these were not discussed during the film nor were we provided with any links to studies demonstrating coincidence between VOM's and specific illnesses. 

1) early on the article, Dr. Good discuses how individuals would use the word "fainting" to described their tonic-clonic seizure episodes. This was quite divergent from the word "epilepsy" in Turkish, thus allowing the patient to distance themselves from the well-stigmatized diagnosis of epilepsy. It also served as a point of reference for what linguistic nuances could be expected during the course of the interview, as these can play a great deal into the narrative.

2) Dr. Good also discusses the work of Dr. Evelyn Early, who interviewed members of the Turkish female population. His description of Dr. Early's work states these narratives “allow the women she studied to develop an interpretation of the illness in relation to a local explanatory logic and the biographic context of the illness, to negotiate right action in the face of uncertainty, and to justify actions taken, thus embedding the illness and therapeutic efforts within local moral norms".

3) Dr. Good includes the story of Zeki Bey, an individual with generalized seizures for 15 years at the time of interaction. Dr. Good describes his narrative of his illness as being "[told with] immediacy, drama, and poignancy... His illness had a powerful and meaningful beginning, which gave shape and coherence to the larger narrative."

The article looks at the "chronic disaster syndrome" - consisting of a multitude of factors that all act upon a person or family after a disaser like Katrina. The aftermath of the distaster lasts years, and this can wear on one's health if they are unable to return to their normal lives. Being displaced for a long period of time, in less optimal conditions, in a new environment, with new schools and jobs, can be traumatic

Emergency response itself is not particularly addressed; the article, instead, focuses on the humanitarian efforts that typically spawn from multi-week and month long conflicts. These are not necessarily the first-line individuals, but rather the workers (such as MSF) which come in to provide aid in the middle, late, or final stages of a conflict. The report delves into the responsibilities and hurdles of dealing with sexual violence in humanitarian efforts, which includes both emergent and non-emergent care.