Push to fund DDT in fight against malaria in Africa

"We're looking at all available tools to combat malaria, like bed nets, like environmental management," says Philip Kruger, program manager for malaria control in South Africa's Limpopo Province. "But even using all the tools available in South Africa, and with a well-funded program, we still couldn't get rid of malaria without DDT. At this stage there's no other chemical available."

Each spring, Mr. Kruger and his teams spray the insides of about 800,000 houses. The amounts are small, usually about 2 grams per square meter, or a total of 18,000 kilograms for the entire province, far less than the tons of pesticide that were dumped into the environment when DDT was a popular agricultural pesticide. But the effects, says Kruger, are dramatic.

Not everyone agrees, however, that the experience of South Africa means other countries should restart their DDT programs.

Dr. Gerhard Verdoorn, conservation director of the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa, supported South Africa's restarting DDT spraying, but only because one of the country's malaria carrying mosquitoes had developed a resistance to pyrethroids, which were used to replace DDT.

"Even now, you will find levels of DDT that are unacceptable, and that's 30 years after it was used for agricultural purposes...." he says. "The problem is it's such a persistent organic pollutant."

That persistence - DDT can stay in the environment for as long as 90 years - is one reason the chemical has been targeted by environmental groups. Scientists are still divided on the actual harm the chemical can do, but even many anti-DDT campaigners like Dr. Verdoorn say the health consequences were exaggerated, and there is no evidence that it causes cancer.

In 2000, pro-DDT forces won a major victory when they convinced negotiators of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants to recognize the effectiveness of DDT in fighting malaria. The treaty, which is still awaiting ratification by at least 20 more countries before it comes into effect, calls for the ultimate elimination of 12 chemicals and compounds believed to be particularly harmful to the environment because they are slow to break down. But the treaty allows countries to apply for a special exemption to use DDT.

Despite this success, the international community has been slow to embrace DDT and remains largely unwilling to fund DDT spraying programs. Officially, the policy of the UN is that DDT is effective and should be used until it can be replaced with less harmful chemicals. But in practice, the chemical is hardly mentioned and almost never funded (DDT was not mentioned in Tuesday's US bill). Instead, the UN advocates the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, which most malaria experts say are far less effective.

In the first two rounds of the Global Fund aid distribution, for example, not a single country received money for DDT spraying, although several projects to distribute insecticide-treated nets were approved. The US has not yet said how their new money will be spent, but few expect DDT spraying to be funded.

Today, South Africa is one of only 22 countries around the world still using DDT for malaria control and only one of eight African countries that have officially requested permission from the United Nations to use the chemical for mosquito control.

DDT advocates say far more would probably return to spraying if the international community supported them in doing so.

"A lot of [donors] will say their official policy is that DDT can be used as a malaria solution, but they don't fund it," says Tren. "But how bad does it have to get before it's an emergency?"

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