You knew that malaria was already endemic in Portugal? I did not know, at least to have started work on the subject. Well, it seems incredible but true. Malaria was a major national disease up to 50 years. Over 40 to 50 thousand people were infected each year with the disease, many of whom perished. The impact of malaria was significant, especially in the interior and rural regions. The Sado River, parts of Braga, Coimbra, Aveiro, Évora and Faro, were the most affected regions. The poor suffered most were those with the disease. The cities affected were little.
The great fight against the disease took place from 30 years and especially in the 40's, when DDT was used to spray the areas most affected and when hundreds of thousands of tablets of quinine (and derivatives) were used in combat malaria. The strategy was so successful that the World Health Organization declared free of malaria Portugal in the late 50.
A success to be proud of and that shows that when we want, we made admirable. How excellent? Extremely admirable. The disease was already endemic in Portugal for millennia, has even been referenced by the poems of Gil Vicente.
Who says we do not do anything right?



http://desmitos.blogspot.com/2008/06/malria-em-portugal.html !!!!





( EU DISSE !!! )