Forty years of malaria eradication in Sardinia. A new appraisal of a great enterprise.
The campaign against malaria in Sardinia carried out by the Ente Regionale per la Lotta Anti-Anofelica in Sardegna (ERLAAS), appears today as one of the greatest efforts against malaria since the discovery of its aetiology and mode of transmission. The disease was eradicated without achieving the eradication of the vector, Anopheles labranchiae, the main objective of the campaign. This species eradication failure had been at first attributed to the indigenous character of A. labranchiae and its long standing in the island. A more recent analysis, based on paleoclimatological information, makes virtually impossible the presence of A. labranchiae during the last (Würm) glacial period and indicates a comparatively recent introduction of the species in the island. It was the absence of A. atroparvus, with which it has usually to compete in Southern Europe, what permitted the wide distribution of A. labrianchiae in the island. Four decades after the events the concept of species eradication as an anti-malaria weapon appears as basically wrong, the results of Sardinia as well as those obtained in the Italian mainland having demonstrated that the eradication of the vector was not required for the successful eradication of the disease.
de Zulueta
J
J
D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000469:parasitology; D005582:Foundations; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009032:Mosquito Control / Q000266:history*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum; D015995:Prevalence; D014480:United Nations