What is a parasitologists dilemma?

Answer 1

Many diseases caused by parasites primarily affect people in third-world nations. If parasitologists help remove potentially lethal parasites from poverty-stricken populations, then they may increase the average life span of these populations. Since overpopulation is normally a problem in areas where parasites are a major concern, a parasitologist can become concerned with whether he or she is really helping a population by removing parasites from it. Hence the parasitologist's dilemma: is removing parasites from a population really "helping" that population? It may simply cause more problems in the long term.

This dilemma is in a way similar to the general problem of sending aid to people in need of it. When food and other forms of aid are sent to developing nations they often only temporarily alleviate the plight of the people who are in need. In effect, this aid causes much larger problems in the long-term, because populations in poverty tend to have very high birth rates. These high birth rates cause a rapid, exponential growth in the population. Eventually, as a direct result of the aid being received, the population experiences overcrowding, famine, and other problems. Thus, after receiving aid for a period of time, during which there is an increase in the population, there are massive problems encountered within that population, which may not be able to be dealt with easily. The result of the aid is turning a poverty-stricken population into a much larger poverty-stricken population that is potentially living under harsher conditions than those that were present before aid was received. For vivid historical examples of how outside aid can cause more problems than it solves, one can research how it has affected many African populations, such as the Hutus and Tutsis. We face a dilemma: should we help those in need, if in all likelihood we will be contributing to much greater problems in the not-too-distant future by doing so?