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spread of malaria. The
number of areas where
chloroquine-resistant strains
of the disease exist,
however, has grown steadily.
South America, Asia, Africa,
Papua New Guinea and the
Solomon lslands all have
resistan! areas.
The female
Anopheles
mosquito transmits the
malaria virus by biting
someone who already has it,
then biting someone else.
Once in the human body, the
malaria parasite propagates
itself in a three-stage cycle,
making it ditficult to
subdue.
Scientists are now working
to develop a vaccine
effective against each stage.
Théy have already isolated
Niger's
Uranium to lran?
H
ow to make ends meet in
face of drought and
economic instability- that is
the question troubling Niger,
in West Africa.
The advancing Sahara is
swallowing more of the
Niger's Seyni Kountché
country's precious arable
land because of a second
drought within 10 years.
Niger's common southern
border with its major African
trading partner, Nigeria, is
shut because of that
country's own economic
difficulties. Niger 's
42
and synthesized a protein
that could produce immunity
to the first stage of the
malaria life cycle. Research
teams at New York University
Medica! Center, the U.S.
~·
Nationallnstitute of Health
~
and the Walter Reed Army
~
lnstitute of Research
~
anticípate making enough of
the vaccine to begin animal
tests this year.
lf all goes well , a malaria
vaccine could be marketed
in five years. Yet the
scientists fear that a new
vaccine may not be enough.
Colonel Franklin Top of
Walter Reed warned, " lf we
don't pul out a good malaria
control drug every five to
seven years, we will be in
trouble." •
commodity earnings in U.S.
dollars plunged from
$124.4 million in 1979 to
about $19.8 million in
1983.
Since Colonel Kountché
seized power in a 1974
coup, he has become one of
the most listened-to leaders
in West Africa. He reoriented
Niger's agricultura!
production from export crops
of cotton and peanuts to
providing food for the
nation's burgeoning
population of six million, and
has effectively cracked down
on political corruption.
Colonel Kountché has made
self-sufficiency in food
production a prime goal ,
saying that to save dignity is
to first of all feed, lodge and
care for the population .
'Niger possesses the
world 's fourth-largest
reserves of easily accessible
uranium, and is fifth in
uranium production after the
United States, Ganada,
South Africa and Namibia .
Revenues from uranium sales
have been used until now for
development in Niger and to
pay for emergency food
provisions and health care.
But what if economic
troubles continue? Part of
Dramatic
Shiftsin
U.S. Work Force
T
he U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports that for
the first time in history, white
male workers are a minority
of the U.S. labor force.
Women are entering the job
market in record numbers.
The shortage of
manpower during World War
11
moved more than 6.5
million women into the U.S.
work place from 1941-45,
and the trend did not
reverse. Since 1940, the
percentage of the U.S. work
force that is female grew
from 24.6 percent to 43.5
percent in 1983 By 1984, 54
percent of the adult female
population were holding
full-time jobs outside the
home. Now, the perceived
need for larger family income
and the women's movement
encourage even more
women to seek employment
outside the home.
Also, blacks and other
minorities , notes the report ,
grew from 10.7 percent in
the solution may be to strike
a major deal with another
nation, possibly lran , for
Niger's rich uranium
reserves.
Colonel Kountché told
Jeune Afrique
magazine that
he would be ready to sell his
uranium to the devil, and
quickly, too, if the devil would
buy Niger's annual
production of 4,300 metric
tons at an agreed price.
lran established an
embassy in Niger and is
1954 to 13 percent of the
work force in 1983. White
males during the same
period decreased from 62.5
percent to 49.3 percent.
Statistics such as those
reported by the National
Commission on Working
Women indicate that 45
percent of women in the
work force are either
unmarried, widowed,
divorced or separated.
Nearly two thirds of new
employees in the United
States during the next 1O
years·wi/1 be women.
-u.s.
Bureau of
Labor Statistics
About 21 percent of women
workers are married to
spouses whose income is
less than $15,000 ayear.
lndications point to a
steady feminization of the
~ork
force. According to the
Bureau, women will
constitute nearly two thirds
of all new employees in
the
United States during the next
10 years. •
negotiating with Niger on a
sale of uranium. The
negotiations between lran
and Niger haven't been
fruitful yet because Niger, as
a member of the
lnternational Agency for
Atomic Energy, is required to
sell uranium only to buyers
using it for a peaceful
purpose. But as Colonel
Kountché remarked, the
issue could, in a continuing
crisis, boil down to a
question of price. •
The
PLAIN TRUTH