MALARIA WASN’T THE ONLY disease transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. DDT also dramatically reduced the incidence of yellow fever and dengue. Furthermore, DDT killed fleas, like the ones that lived on rats that transmitted murine typhus, and the ones that lived on prairie dogs and ground squirrels and transmitted Yersinia pestis, the plague. Considering the virtual elimination of all of these diseases in many countries, the National Academy of Sciences estimated in 1970 that DDT had saved the lives of 500 million people. One could argue reasonably that DDT has saved more lives than any other
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yay for chemicals!
