Malaria and social movements in Mexico: the last 60 years.

ABSTRACT

The Mexican Ministry of Health's anti-malaria campaigns of the last sixty years have overlapped and interacted with both the World Health Organization's Global Eradication Program and a series of major political, social, and demographic movements in Mexico, including economic transformation, migration, urbanization, tourism, rural development, and the building of social and sanitary services. The authors argue that three decades of successful environmentally-oriented malaria work that integrated social and economic development was followed by the Global Campaign's insecticide-based approach that failed in both its economic and public health objectives, ultimately serving to block development efforts, particularly in poorer and southern states.