MAN AND MALARIA IN TRINIDAD: ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF A CHANGING HEALTH HAZARD1

Abstract

ABSTRACT Analysis of the historical geography of malaria requires examination of relationships between culture, disease organism, and physical environment. Mosquito abatement techniques over the past twenty-five years have succeeded in changing malaria distribution in Trinidad. Cultural patterns of land use, migration, and settlement also appear as critical variables. The two mosquito vectors responsible for the disease on the island have radically different ecological requirements. One species, Anopheles bellator (D & K), is more commonly found in the highland areas of the central portion of the island. It requires the presence of “tank water'’in specific bromeliad epiphytes for oviposition. The techniques of cacao farming place much of the rural population in juxtaposition to the living space of the vector enabling disease transmission to be easily accomplished. The other vector, Anopheles aquasalis Curry, is a coastal breeder primarily, unable to survive above 600 feet elevation. The shape of Trinidad, its land use patterning, and migratory proclivity of the East-Indian rural people have enabled malaria to infect this cultural group more seriously than any other segment of the population. Maps of malaria risk are presented to show the changing distributional pattern of infection in response to public health efforts, and urban and rural land use.