The yawn that greeted the announcement this week -- reported on by
Joyce Howard Price -- that officials at the U.S. Agency for
International Development are now vigorously endorsing and funding the
use of DDT in Africa is representative of the world community's general
lack of concern over the hundreds of millions of people who suffer from
malaria every year. We applaud USAID's decision, even if we regret how
long it's taken to reach it.
Put bluntly, malaria's killing
spree -- believed to be somewhere in the realm of 50 million people
since 1972 -- is worse than AIDS. Of the 500 million annual victims, 90
percent live in Africa. In the sub-Saharan nation of Uganda alone,
malaria is responsible for the deaths of 100,000 children under the age
of 5 every year. In dollar amounts, the United Nations says malaria
costs Africa about $12 billion annually, or about 40 percent of its
health expenditures.
None of which is news to those who have
witnessed the ongoing genocide for years, pleading with Western nations
to lift their unsubstantiated fears of using DDT, whose effectiveness
in combating malaria remains unmatched. Consider that in South Africa,
which used DDT before banning the substance in 1996, malaria rates
jumped from a few thousand every year to 50,000. Despite opposition
from the international community, in 2003 South Africa reversed the ban
and watched its malaria rates return to their pre-1996 levels.
Western
nations, including the United States, have ignored DDT's life-saving
attributes and focused instead on its outdated and unproven
environmental and health effects. First, study after study have found
no evidence that DDT has any negative effects on human health. Second,
concerns over its environmental impact are exaggerated at best, and
could be controlled easily with regulated spraying in homes instead of
on crops. It is believed that twice-yearly sprayings inside homes is
all that's required to dramatically reduce infection rates.
But
if history is any guide, expect more of the foolishness coming now from
the European Union. In response to Uganda's announcement recently that
it will begin spraying DDT, the European Union has threatened to
restrict imports of Ugandan crops. Closer to home, environmental groups
are already lining up against USAID's decision to end three decades of
human-inflicted epidemic.
No doubt, the environmentalists will
ratchet up their nostalgia for Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." USAID's
program, however, should be just enough to silence them. Of the $99
million USAID currently spends about on malaria control annually, much
of which is used for less-effective insecticides, drug treatments and
mosquito nets, $20 million will go to indoor DDT spraying. In
Mozambique, Ethiopia and Zambia, another $10 million has been allocated
for indoor spraying later this year. It's a small step, to be sure, but
it should save hundreds of thousands of lives.