Dump DDT, here and now

Malaria afflicts over 300 million people world wide each year and claims one million lives, almost one every fifteen seconds. Over two hun...

Malaria afflicts over 300 million people world wide each year and claims one million lives, almost one every fifteen seconds. Over two hundred thousand people are afflicted in India alone.

Yet, for the past 50 years, the scourge 8212; which mainly affects the poortropical populations of the world 8212; has been fought on a single pointstrategy, DDT. Now, in the face of an increasingly resistant mosquito, thishas not been working so well anymore. Besides, once thought to be a wonderchemical, DDT has now been found to have severe effects on wildlife, andaccumulates to high levels in human fatty tissues and mother8217;s breast milkwith effects like reduction in lactation, and so on. Indian mothershave some of the highest levels. The United States Environmental ProtectionAgency has classified DDT as a probable human carcinogen. Its use inagriculture, once widespread, has almost stopped. Yet research to findsolutions to fight malaria more effectively with better tools such asenvironmental management, drugs and vaccines, has not been adequately fundedby an uninterested developed world. Consequently countries like India are forced to spend almost their entire health budgets over 70 per cent onmalaria control.

Effective solutions to this giant killer need global action and anexponential leap in resourcing. Opportunities to lever international fundingare rare and should be logically grabbed. One such moment was the recentlynegotiated international United Nations multilateral treaty on 12 persistentorganic pollutants POPs of which DDT is one. It was hence surprising and puzzling to see a section of public health experts raising concerns about the ultimate phasing out of DDT and the promotion of alternatives.

Taking environmentalists head on, through signed open letters and creating a make believe controversy in the international media, they branded people who should have been their allies as quot;eco-terroristsquot;. According to them by calling for a DDT phase out, environmentalists were helping malaria spread. They forgot that environmentalists and physicians have the protection of human health as a guiding principle, and this case was no different.

Instead of working together, these malaria experts8217; chose to break civil society ranks. The question to be posed is not whether DDT needs to be protected, but what needs to be done to eradicate malaria. By seeming more protective of DDT than of concerns about eliminating malaria, they have revealed how politically naive they are. The key to public health protection lies not merely in the use of a particular chemical but on understanding the political linkages between technology, its development, choice, availability, access and usage.

DDT has been a controversial chemical to say the least. In 1962, RachelCarson in her classic book, Silent Spring, prophetically drew connectionsbetween health and DDT. From then on, many studies have demonstrated effectson the breeding biology of birds, bioaccumulation in fish as well asneurodevelopment, endocrinal as well as possible cancer effects in humans.Even the conservative World Health Organization, a long time DDT supporter, has initiated a Roll Back Malaria programme propagating multipoint strategies through integrated vector control IVM, including impregnated bed netting, mosquito larvae control, and so on. Meanwhile DDT is becoming ineffective in many parts of India and the world. Malaria epidemics have been reported despite increased DDT use. Many countries like Mexico and the Philippines, are phasing out DDT usage while India and China are the only two countries in the world still manufacturing it, although India has plans for an early phase out.

Saving lives from malaria is a prime concern, even if it entails using toxicchemicals. But should poor countries continue to whittle away their healthbudgets without having access to more permanent solutions? For the first time the Gates Foundation donated a token 50 million for research on a malaria vaccine, and the World Bank has funded alternative approaches in four countries. Malaria has to be eradicated, but there is no future in DDT.