[afro-nets] West stands accused over malaria

[Dr Rana Jawad Asghar <jawad@alumni.washington.edu>]

West stands accused over malaria
--------------------------------
By Richard Black
BBC science correspondent
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3531893.stm


DDT can stop mosquitoes spreading malaria

African health campaigners have accused western countries of de-
liberately ignoring an effective weapon against malaria. They
say the chemical DDT could help fight the disease, which kills
about a million people each year - 90% of them in Africa.

Sprayed annually onto the inside walls of houses, DDT is the
main method of malaria control for countries such as South Af-
rica, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Swaziland.

Used in this way, in small amounts under strict control, there
is no conclusive scientific evidence that it damages human
health or the environment.

No help from West

A number of other African nations including Uganda and Kenya are
considering reintroducing DDT. But according to Richard Tren,
Executive Director of the pressure group Africa Fighting Ma-
laria, the western donors on which they depend will not help
them.

"The reason that DDT's not used in the US and Europe is because
they don't have malaria," he says.

"They did use DDT, and they got rid of malaria. Not a single do-
nor agency will support the use of DDT or any other insecticide
in indoor residual spraying."

An investigation by the BBC's Earth Files produced evidence to
support this claim.

The Swedish aid agency Sida will not allow its funds to be used
for buying DDT.

'Ignoring' DDT

The UK's Department for International Development funds 13 ma-
laria-only projects in eight African countries, none of which
uses DDT.

The programme also found that some leading researchers believe
the United Nations agency Roll Back Malaria is ignoring the po-
tential of indoor spraying, which the researchers say has pro-
duced better results than treated bednets.

These agencies all deny having blanket policies preventing in-
volvement with DDT programmes.

But activists maintain that western concerns over the very real
environmental danger from widespread DDT use in agriculture is
denying poorer African nations a choice in how they fight ma-
laria.