Articles for
February 2005
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Scientists Clash Over DDT Use -
Evelyn Lirri & Jane Nafula
The arguing over whether or not to use DDT in Uganda continues ... while thousands die from malaria. Anti-DDT campaigners should realise that their unscientific and biased opposition to DDT costs lives and blights the futures of thousands of young Ugandans. |
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Fact and Comment -
Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes weighs in on DDT and pulls no punches. Great stuff. |
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Experts Defend DDT Use -
Evelyn Lirri & Asha Ntabadde
At last some sense on DDT use in Uganda. If the government had been allowed to start using DDT a year ago, when they wanted to, thousands of lives would have been saved. Instead the country has had to deal with absurd and unscientific opposition to DDT - from among others the European Union. |
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In Africa, a Plant's Twofold Promise -
Andrew England
Build a market and people will produce. The irony is that many of the aid agencies now so interested in artemisia, such as USAID, blocked the development of a market for so long. |
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WHO Warns of Malaria Drug Shortage -
Jason Beaubien
This National Public Radio audio story explores the World Health Organization's assertion that there will be a massive shortfall in a key malaria drug, artemisinin. |
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EU Warns on DDT -
New Vision
Guy Rijcken, the EU Charge d'Affaires has warned Uganda not to use DDT. His claims that DDT will find its way into the food chain, thereby threatening exports, is false and malicious and will no doubt lead to further death and disease in that country. Why doesn't he just admit that he is using the DDT issue as a trade barrier to protect the cosseted EU farmers? This disgraceful behaviour must stop. |
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Zimbabwe hunger claims 'US plot' -
BBC
As usual the Zimbabwean government blames someone else for the misery, hunger and ill health it is inflicting on its own people. As more and more people are going hungry, it will become increasingly difficult to prevent deaths from preventable diseases, such as malaria. |
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MP Thanks Minister for 'Useless' Reply
The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
October 14, 2023
Posted to the web October 14, 2023
By Julius Bosire
Nairobi
Mbita MP Otieno Kajwang' (Narc) thanked Health assistant minister Gideon Konchellah for giving a "useless answer" in Parliament.
Mr Kajwang' had sought to know the number of children between the age of one and five who had died of malaria between January 1989 and January 2004, in Suba District.
He further sought to know any plans by the Government to contain the mosquito menace through spraying the breeding grounds with DDT, as happened in the 1970s.
Mr Konchellah said his ministry was not able to give accurate figures relating to the malaria deaths, adding that the Government would dispatch an audit team to investigate records at the district hospital.
He said the Government would not use DDT as it was an organic pollutant, earmarked for phasing out as stipulated in the Stockholm Convention, which Kenya signed in May 2001.
The convention only allowed the use of DDT for indoor spraying in countries which did not have alternative sprays, Mr Konchellah said, pointing out that Kenya produces 80 per cent of the world's pyrethrum.
DDT, he said, was harmful to human health and environment, adding that mosquitoes had developed resistance to it.
The assistant minister concluded: "The Ministry of Health has declared war on mosquitoes, and will use safe insecticides, biological control, and environmental management."
But Mr Kajwang' termed the answer useless, saying that children were dying as the Government watched.
He added that DDT was in use in South Africa, where malaria cases had dropped by 70 per cent.
Dr Bonface Khalwale (Ikolomani, Narc) asked the minister to name the insecticide he planned to use after ruling out DDT.
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