Articles

Malaria: Why the battle is elusive

Jasson Urbach | 13 Dec 2023 | 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 2023 | 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 2023 | 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 2023 | 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 2023 | 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 2023 | 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 2023 | 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).

Tim Lambert's smear campaign: A Response from Africa Fighting Malaria

None | 11 Mar 2024 | Africa Fighting Malaria

The blogger, Tim Lambert (aka Deltoid), regularly engages in the DDT debate by making ad hominem attacks on those who defend DDT in an effort to undermine their credibility. AFM has often been the target of such attacks and as a general policy, has not considered it a constructive use of our time to engage in these often misguided and pointless discussions.

False reporting and the fight against malaria

Richard Tren & Donald Roberts | 08 Feb 2024 | Times LIVE

At the dawn of the new millennium, hospitals and clinics in northern KwaZulu-Natal were inundated with patients and graveyards were filling up fast. The area was in the tragic grip of one of the most severe malaria epidemics in its history. Luckily, though, by 2001, malaria cases had fallen by more than 80% thanks to the reintroduction of DDT.

AFM Bulletin #6: Recognizing the way insecticides work in malaria control - the critical importance of WHO's position on DDT

None | 31 Jan 2024 | Africa Fighting Malaria

The only proven and consistent method of insect-borne disease prevention (where a vaccine does not exist) is vector control - suppressing contact between disease-spreading vectors (mosquitoes, fleas, lice, and other insects) and humans in order to interrupt disease transmission.