Articles

Time for African leaders to take malaria seriously

Richard Tren | 22 Jul 2023 | The Daily Caller

Recent efforts, spearheaded in large part by the U.S. government, have reduced the annual malaria death toll from around 1 million to 800,000. There has also been an impressive increase in funding for research and development (R&D;) into new malaria-fighting tools.

The United Nations' Scientific Fraud against DDT

Donald Roberts, Roger Bate & Richard Tren | 21 Jan 2024 | American Enterprise Institute

For over seventy years, DDT has been a vital insecticide in the battle against disease. Yet it is vilified for largely illegitimate concerns about its impact on the environment and human health. Through a mix of environmental fervor, self-interest, and disregard for evidence-based policy, United Nations (UN) agencies are misleading the public about DDT—mistakenly claiming it is not needed and can be eliminated globally by 2020.

Why is the UN promoting false data in the fight against malaria?

Richard Tren & Donald Roberts | 20 Jan 2024 | The Daily Caller

Malaria continues to ravage communities and economies and claims the life of a child approximately every 45 seconds. Some progress has been made in recent years, but this could be undone if some UN agencies continue their campaign to stop the use of public health insecticides in the fight against malaria.

International advocacy against DDT and other public health insecticides for malaria control

Donald Roberts & Richard Tren | 20 Jan 2024 | Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine

A new international effort to control/eradicate malaria is accompanied by suggestions that malaria can be controlled without the use of DDT and other insecticides. We review the underlying science of claims publicized by the GEF, UNEP, and the Stockholm Convention Secretariat.

Insecticides for public health

Richard Tren | 31 Mar 2024 | Canadian Medical Association Journal

Paracelsus, the 16th-century Swiss physician, cottoned onto an important concept that has served humanity well: "The dose makes the poison." Most of us unknowingly accept this important observation as we drink our first cup of coffee in the morning or drink a beer at the end of the day.

New insecticides are crucial in battle against malaria

Roger Bate | 19 Feb 2024 | SciDev.Net

Insecticides are the most important preventative tool against malaria, dengue and filariasis. Even for yellow fever, where a vaccine exists, insecticides are needed to control common outbreaks.

Malaria Keeps Killing Millions

Jasson Urbach | 16 May 2023 | Sowetan

Jasson Urbach reports on AFM's recently released study: Antimalarial Drug Quality in the Most Severely Malarious Parts of Africa - A Six Country Study in South Africa's newspaper the Sowetan.  

AFM Director Richard Tren Comments on Lancet Editorial

Richard Tren | 07 Apr 2024 | Center for Global Development

I think that Sabot and Feachem raise some excellent points and it is vital to ensure that there is ongoing debate about elimination and eventual eradication in this way - which is to say a constructive and positive way. I have a few comments on specific points and then want to make a couple of larger, overarching points.

A long, hard road to the end of malaria in Africa

Jasson Urbach | 06 Nov 2023 | Business Day (South Africa)

There has been much written and said in the media recently about the successful development of a malaria vaccine and, considering the human misery and economic costs the disease continues to cause, the developments should be welcomed. The vaccine showing the most promise (known by its laboratory name of RTS,S) was first formulated more than 20 years ago and has been used in trials since 1992, but due to the tricky nature of the parasite, which is constantly evolving, outwitting modern medicine and the human immune system, the development of a successful vaccine has been a slow process of trial and error.

The Case for DDT

Roger Bate | 05 Nov 2023 | American.com

Malaria is as old as mankind and still going strong, infecting hundreds of millions (and killing between one and three million) each year. A cure was known in 17th-century Europe. But because it was brought to the continent by Catholic missionaries (who actually learned of it from South American natives), many malaria sufferers, included Oliver Cromwell, thought the medicine was part of a "Popish plot" and refused to take it. Cromwell died of the disease in 1658. It took his death, and the subsequent curing of King Charles II, to shift public opinion in favor of "quinine," as the anti-malaria agent is now called.