O'Shaughnessy Responds

I would like to extend my thanks to Chen et al. for adding helpful insights to the points made in my article from the elder Chen's long career in the World Health Organization's Taiwanese malaria program. I was especially heartened to read that records were kept detailing the number of cats killed as a result of indoor residual spraying in Taiwan and Chen et al.'s conclusion, which supports my own, that the deaths were a result of direct ingestion rather than biomagnification. It was also interesting to read (and be corrected) that thatched roofs were only applied to farm huts and not the longhouses in the area. Another source1 separately describes the “cat drop” and the thatched-roof problem, but the two events must have been connected as a result. I agree with Chen et al. that air drops were rare in the area but I am convinced that a “cat drop” did occur. Interestingly, Tom Harrison, who lived in the area at the time, was the first to describe the “cat drop,” but did not provide many details to substantiate its occurence.2 Interestingly, his biographer reports that an air drop was only made because a transport plane could not land on the short strip at Bario, Sarawak.3 Furthermore, the account of the drop made by Morrison4 includes many details that I did not provide in my article (such as the three days it took to make the drop owing to bad weather), but which further substantiate the existence of the event. Finally, none of the accounts other than the “parable” suggest the World Health Organization was involved, which explains why there was no communication of any type from that agency regarding the event

Environmental health · Malaria Research and Control · Medicine · Mosquito-borne diseases and control

• Fair Land Sarawak

  Alastair Morrison•Fair Land Sarawak•1993

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