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Luísa Reis-Castro: mosquitoes, race, and class

LuisaReisCastro
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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?

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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The author addresses emergency response by analyzing the responses different nations had to nuclear plant disasters and compared those emergency responses to each other as well as the fallout in Japan. She then analyzed the areas where there was apparent needs that had to be addressed in terms of emergency response. She shows exactly why a nuclear emergency response plan is necessary. The author analyzes the effect that post nuclear disaster had on the people, leaders and areas surrounding Chernobyl and Three Mile Island as well as Fukushima. She also addresses not only the importance of having an international emergency response team, but also the need for integration between the public and scientists/elite that decide protocol. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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Requirements to apply are a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and demonstrable evidence of promise in the field of narrative medicine according to the admissions website. Ultimately, those looking to enter the medical field in any capacity are the main targeted demographic for this program. The goal is to instill into doctors, nurses, PAs, social workers, etc, the idea of incorporating narrative medicine into their clinical work. Those predisposed to healthcare fields are likely optimal candidates for this program. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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Emergency response isn't really addressed to the degree of the disaster discussed last week. The response discussed in this article isn't about immediate emergency response, triage or even fallout aftermath. The response discussed in this article was more about the analysis of social parameters on the spread of disease. The response in this case would be the need to better address these social influences on the spread of disease in certain populations. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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There are many facts, statistics and data provided by the MSF collection of essays. Along with data provided by these essays and other organizations such as WHO and other cited works, expert analysis is also used as a common method throughout this article to support the arguments.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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This film appeals to the viewers from an emotional aspect. The documentary follows a family and is told from the father's perspective, a student from Wisconsin. It shows a first person experience of what it was like to deal with this situation and the climate and magnitude of the situation in Liberia. The documentary isn't scientific or statistics heavy. Rather it has testimony from natives of the area and footage of bodies and the lack of hospital effectiveness and government protocol. The stories and narratives from locals is what really captures the attention of viewers and accurately portrays the hardships faced. There were a few parts at the end where numbers of those infected were mentioned, yet the the narrator's account of what occurred as well as other local's stories is what really drives home the point of anguish and despair seen during those hard times in Africa. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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"Although violence directly affecting health service delivery in complex security environments has received a great deal of media attention, there is very little publically available research, particu- larly peer-reviewed, original research."  

"Overall, it is important to understand the perspectives of per- petrators in order to find solutions that enable effective delivery of health services "

"Key challenges in addressing violence affecting health service delivery in complex security environments include a lack of health- specific, accessible and comparable, gender-disaggregated data and sufficient data on perpetrator motives. "

"According to workshop participants, in some cases the lack of gender-disaggregated data may be partly due to attempts to protect the confidentiality of victims. "

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Sara_Nesheiwat

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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As mentioned, this site offers data on long term health afflictions of those exposed to 9/11. Yet the site also offers information about the participants in the registry. How they were selected, how many people are entered in the registry and where their exact locations were during the attacks. On top of providing data on the participants, the site also offers information on funding, as well as access to annual reports addressing the health impacts of 9/11. The site also gives access to those that the registry works with and collaborates with. The history behind the registry and the attacks are also provided. Sources for all data and a full bibliography is also available along with information about legal aspects of the health and compensation act, enrollee's confidentiality and thousands of other resources.