Articles

The UN is premature in trying to ban DDT for malaria control

Richard Tren et al | 10 Oct 2012 | British Medical Journal

Despite the progress that has been made in malaria control and treatment, it remains a serious global health problem.1 Several malarial countries, including some that are striving to eliminate the disease, still rely on dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) for vector control.

Time to give spatial repellency its rightful role in vector control

Richard Tren, Kimberly Hess & Donald Roberts | 19 Jun 2012 | MalariaWorld

Progress is being made against malaria. As reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria cases have declined by more than 50% between 2000 and 2010, and malaria-specific mortality has declined by 26% [1].

Green groups continue to oppose malaria control strategies

Jasson Urbach & Richard Tren | 24 May 2012 | Africa Fighting Malaria

Malaria remains a major global public health problem, claiming between 700,000 and 1 million lives every year. Most of those deaths occur in children under 5 years of age in Africa.

Malaria: Why the battle is elusive

Jasson Urbach | 13 Dec 2011 | The Herald

Sadc Ministers of Health met in Limpopo on Friday November 11 to commemorate Sadc Malaria Day and raise the profile of the disease. The theme of this year's event was, "Be free of Malaria in the Sadc region," which is now conceivable as several countries in the region move towards the goal of malaria elimination.

Public policy failures and the development of new insecticides

None | 05 Dec 2011 | Africa Fighting Malaria

On December 5, 2011, AFM presented its poster on public health insecticides at The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's 60th annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA.

The Business Case for Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS): A Private Sector Workshop on Comprehensive Malaria Control

None | 31 Oct 2011 | GBCHealth

The Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) workstream of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership's (RBM) Vector Control Working Group (VCWG) has been tasked with broadening and deepening private sector involvement in IRS.

DDT Paradox

Richard Tren & Donald Roberts | 01 Oct 2011 | Environmental Health Perspectives

Bouwman et al. (2011) characterized anti-DDT, centrist-DDT and pro-DDT positions, and stated that they "could find no current outright anti-DDT activities." This conclusion is false and misleading. Several activist groups currently promote an anti-DDT agenda, routinely hyping supposed human health and environmental harm from DDT and ignoring studies that find no association between DDT and such harm.

Precaution and funding of vector control must be based on evidence

Richard Tren & Donald Roberts | 18 May 2011 | Malaria Journal

In their paper "Status of pesticide management in the practice of vector control: a global survey in countries at risk of malaria or other major vector-borne diseases," van den Berg et al. make some generally accepted and valid arguments about the need for improved management of public health insecticides (PHIs).

AFM Observations on the 5th Conference of Parties of the Stockholm Convention

None | 29 Apr 2011 | Africa Fighting Malaria

The final day of the COP5 focused on agreeing to and adopting decision points. Early on, the COP agreed on the listing of endosulfan in Annex A, much to the delight of almost all the delegations and NGOs.

Africans Tell the UN to Buzz Off

Roger Bate & Richard Tren | 28 Apr 2011 | American.com

Two weeks ago the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a bloc of 15 African nations, said it would begin producing the insecticide DDT to combat malarial mosquitoes. This is a necessary reaction to damage caused by the illogical, misguided, and often untruthful campaign against DDT run by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).