TAXATION-A Loophole to Plug

and human hosts is set for a change in a way that will affect human populations everywhere.
This new understanding and the WHO's acknowledgement of the resurgence of diseases will, without a doubt, mean that third world disease control budgets will see substantial enhancement. It has become obvious that only by controlling diseases in third world countries can the industrial world remain safe. In other words, containment is now, again after a hundred odd years, the central focus of disease control. Against the background of the negative impact of the structural adjustment programmes, the ruling elite in the third world countries will indeed welcome the politically ad vantageous inputs into disease programmes. And, if past developments are any guide, they will be once again at the cost of basic health care infrastructure. It is in this context that countries such as India must not only radically revise their disease programmes, but integrate them with a well-developed basic health service. Clearly, change in environmental parameters, whether due to global warming or other developments, is a factor in the spread of disease. For example, there is growing evidence that the appearance of malaria in a dry region such as Rajasthan is related to the three new canal systems in the desert region as well as population movements; and whether the creation of large bodies of water and greater vegetation also affect mosquito-breeding patterns needs to be studied. Current disease control programmes with their emphasis on technical and chemical inputs will not be able to cope with changing disease transmission patterns. And in the absence of adequate primary health infrastructure, epidemic disasters will occur, as actually happened in Rajasthan.