Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp #43: Man vs. Mosquito - The World United Against Malaria / Fouad Kronfol

In the June 2019 Quarterly my colleague Doreen Lobo wrote a very nice article about my philatelic interests and reported on my exhibit about malaria for which I won a medal. That spurred me to start this Column and this week I am reverting to the same subject as one of the new series of "Thematic" articles. An important reason is that 2022 marks the 60th. anniversary of the 1962 WHO global campaign to fight the disease called "The World United Against Malaria". After that first exhibit I learned that stamps and covers related to malaria had become a "niche" area for collectors, and I subsequently expanded my collection on the subject.I have todate acquired stamps from 81 of the 98 postal administrations that issued stamps for the WHO Campaign. Materials from this campaign will be the main component of this week's article.

According to the 2021 World Malaria Report nearly half the world's population lives in areas at risk of malaria transmission in 87 countries and territories. In 2020 malaria caused an estimated 241 million clinical episodes and 627,000 deaths, of which some 95% were in the WHO African Region and children under 5 years accounted for 61% of all deaths.The good news is that clinical tests of a vaccine have been started in a few African countries.

Since 1955 WHO has had a malaria eradication programme. In 1960 the World Health Assembly decided to launch an international campaign of communication and fund raising to augment their "Malaria Eradication Special Account".The issuing of stamps was a means to spread information and raise funds for the campaign. A special "universal" logo of  the UN wreath with the WHO logo of the snake on a rod (Asclepius) and a stylized mosquito was produced.It was suggested that countries issue their stamps on 7 April 1962 which was "World Health Day". 

 

The WHO campaign was successful from the official and public information points of view. It is reported that 114 issuers of philatelic materials participated, including 98 postal administrations that issued stamps and 16 that issued special cancellations for the occasion .However the financial returns were lower than anticipated. Shortage of funds and technical issues (resistence to insecticides by the mosquito vector, inadequate public health structures, sustainability of systems) required a change in WHO policies from promoting eradication, to elimination and finally to control of the disease, so that the campaign strategy was stopped in 1972, that is exactly 50 years ago. Meanwhile in the 1950's and 1960's UNICEF was spending about half its total programme allocations on anti- malaria projects. This also tapered off and other approaches were made with more effective drugs, sprayed mosquito bed netting, indoor residual spraying, etc.

Here we start with the official logo designed for the WHO Campaign, with a short description of how it came about.

These two stamps from Mexico are, I believe, the earliest issues to publicize national efforts to combat the disease. The first was isued in 1939 and is supposed to show a big mosquito attacking a human being. The second was the same design but re-issued in 1944. Both stamps were used as a postal tax and were obligatory on all mail from the country. The inscription is" Campaign Against Malaria ' in Spanish. 

Here we have two triangular stamps from the Republic of Haiti. They show theWHO campaign logo with the official inscription, " The World United Against Malaria " in French.They were issued on 30 May 1962, about a month after World Health Day.

Also issued before the launch of the WHO Campaign was this set of four stamps from the Republic of Indonesia. These stamps were issued on 12 November 1960 for World Health Day that year.

This is an interesting First Day Cover from Turkey which was issued on 11 December 1961 to commemorate UNICEF's tenth anniversary.The three stamps show various UNICEF assisted projects including a child drinking milk, a team spraying the mosquito vector and an MCH nurse with a child. These stamps were semi-postal ones with the surcharged amounts meant for funding child welfare activities .Note the pretty post-mark with the UNICEF logo issued from Ankara. The cachet also shows the UN Emblem.

Here we have another FDC from the United States which features the stamp issued on 30 March 1962 in Washington D.C.in commemoration of the WHO Campaign. The stamp shows the US Emblem next to the official WHO logo. The Cachet  shows the Campaign logo and an inscription indicating the US contribution to the world effort. An interesting addition on the cover is a semi-cicular inscription that reads: "Together Let Us Eradicate Disease".

The same US stamp is on another FDC as shown in this photo..The different cachet shows a globe with many persons below it and inscribed with, " International Struggle Against Malaria ".

This is a souvenir sheet issued jointly by the United States and the United Nations to commemorate the 1962 WHO Campaign. The same US stamp is next to the two UN stamps; the official logo for the campaign is on top and the post mark is 30 March 1962.

This First Day Cover is from the UN. It has a block of four stamps of the 11cent denomination and is "tagged" with the French version of the WHO Campaign  slogan, " Le Monde Uni Contre le Paludisme", dated 1962. The block of four stamps are post marked with, "A Decade of United Nations Postage Stamps". The cachet designed by "The Aristocrats" is quite elaborate and shows both the WHO and UN Emblems with the inscription, " Campaign to Make the World Concious that Malaria Can Be Eradicted From the World", (a lofty objective that was finally not achieved!).

This UN FDC shows the set of two stamps issued for the WHO Anti-Malariqa Campaign on 30 March 1962. It is an envelope that was actually posted to an address in N.Y City. The cachet shows what are considered the "Big Six of Malaria", scientists, epidemiologists, etc. who contributed to the global effort to eradicate the disease, including (clockwise from top left): Ilya Metchnikov (Russia, 1908 Nobel laureat physiology), Alphonse Laveran (France, 1907 Nobel laureat physiology and medicine) , Patrick Manson (Scotland, founder of tropical medicine), Alexander Sinton (Canada, research and field work on malaria in India), Battista Grassi ( Italy, pioneering work on malariology), and Sir Ronald Ross (UK,1902 Nobel laureat for physiology and medicine, especially malaria).

Here we have a second FDC with a block of four of the other 4 cent UN stamp issued for the WHO Campaign. The post mark also reads, "A Decade of UN Postage Stamps"and was issued on 30 March 1962 at the UN in New York. The cachet shows a microscope photo of the Anopheles Gambiae mosquito carrying malaria and the photo of Dr. Emilio Pampana, the first Director of Malaria Eradication in WHO.  

Another FDC with the 11 cent UN stamp issued on 30 March 1962 with  the post mark, "A Decade of United Nations Postage Stamps". This cachet shows a mosquito being "attacked"  from four sides of the world with the inscriptions of the WHO Campaign . The WHO Emblem is shown next to the wording, "United Nations through the World Health Organization".

The final item this week is again the First Day Cover with the 4 cent UN stamps issued on 30 March 1962, with the same inscriptions and post marks as the cover above. The cachet, however, is different as it shows a microscope, a graph, a syringe and a plant, with the French inscription of the WHO Campaign logo, " Le Monde Uni Contre le Malaria".

Fouad Kronfol can be reached via fouadkronfol@videotron.ca

  

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