BIOL 2650

Journey to Planet Earth: Hot Zones 

Fall 2008

1. Lake Victoria in Africa is home to how many people?

 

2. It is the world capital for what disease?

 

3. What % of the population may be infected at any one time?

 

4. What proportion of children die before age 5, as a result?

 

5. What factors are slowly destroying the lake's ecosystem, driving the fishermen and their families to leave the area?

 

 

6. What 2 changes have allowed malaria to become prevalent in Nairobi, where it didn't occur until recently?

 

 

7. How many cases of malaria occur annually, in Peru?

 

8. What changes have occurred in  Peru, to cause this new epidemic of malaria?

 

9. In addition to malaria, (which is caused by the protozoan Plasmodium) what viral disease has now taken hold in the population of Iquitos, on the Amazon River?

 

10. What conditions make this disease possible?

 

11. What rare disease made its way to New York City in 1999, and has since moved to the rest of North America? What is the vector?

 

 

12. What triggered the cholera outbreak in Peru, in 1991?

 

 

13. What persistent conditions allow cholera to be a continuing problem in slums and shanty towns around the world?

 

 

14. Bangladesh has two very serious water quality problems. What are they?

 

 

15. What are some of the water quality problems affecting Chesapeake bay?

 

 

16. Describe the ecological and health problems that are the result of the water pollution in Chesapeake Bay.