THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 137, July 24, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
REAL RISKS & IRRELEVANT RISKS:
Responsible Researchers, Journalists, & Officials
Should Focus on Malaria, Not Insecticides
By Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes
PUBLIC HEALTH IN AFRICA: DDT, MALARIA CONTROL, & THE COUNTERVAILING ACTIVITIES OF ANTI-INSECTICIDE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS -- UNSOUND &
UNSCIENTIFIC "RESEARCH," IRRESPONSIBLE & BIASED JOURNALISM, DISHONEST OFFICIALS, & ENVIRONMENTAL
IDEOLOGUES -- POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM & THE ANTI-INSECTICIDE MOVEMENT WAGE WAR AGAINST EFFECTIVE
MALARIA-CONTROL PROGRAMS IN AFRICA -- POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS & ANTI-INSECTICIDE ACTIVISTS
DISSEMINATE PROPAGANDA & APPLY PRESSURE TO PREVENT OR STOP THE USE OF DDT IN ANTI-MALARIA PROGRAMS
FULL STORY:
Few parents want themselves or their children on drugs that cause anemia, nausea, diarrhea, increased infection risks, fertility
problems, fetal defects, and hair loss. But, when those chemotherapy drugs prevent death from cancer, it’s an easy choice.
That’s the situation facing Africa – only for us it’s not cancer. (Most Africans simply don’t live long enough to get cancer.)
Our concern is malaria, which infects nearly 400 million of us, and kills 1 million of our precious children, every single year.
We desperately need the African equivalent of chemo drugs – DDT and other insecticides – to prevent this terrible disease.
Thankfully, the United States Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, and other agencies are
helping us launch spraying programs. Just spraying tiny amounts of DDT on the walls keeps 90% of mosquitoes from even
entering homes, irritates those that do come in so they don’t bite, and kills any that land, and these effects of indoor DDT
spraying lasts six months or more. No other chemical, at any price, can do that.
But chemical-hating activists continue to oppose these life-saving programs and raise constantly changing “concerns” like:
“Some researchers think DDT could be inhibiting lactation and might be related to premature births, low birth weights and
slow reflexes in babies.”
The latest “concerns” come from the University of California-Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times. They claim “very
high exposure” to DDT causes mental test scores in two-year-olds to drop slightly. They say the problem may disappear by
the time the children enter school – but still argue that Africa should consider “alternative anti-malarial controls,” and
“balance” risks carefully against benefits.
However, the study isn’t even relevant to Africa. No one is talking about massive DDT spraying for agriculture, or even insect
control. We’re talking about limited, controlled spraying on walls of houses.
There are no viable “alternatives” for DDT. Nothing repels mosquitoes as well or as long as DDT does, or costs so little.
However, larvacides, bednets, drugs, sanitation, and other insecticides are also vital weapons in our war on malaria.
Moreover, every chemical has risks. In fact, DDT is 100 times less toxic to humans than nicotine in cigarettes, just as safe as
pyrethroids used in agriculture and mosquito control, and far less toxic than chemotherapy drugs, say experts like Dr. Donald
Roberts, Professor of Tropical Disease at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Anti-malaria drugs are also powerful chemicals. Fansidar can cause severe vomiting and lung and liver damage; Chloroquine
(which no longer even works well) has harmful physical effects; and even Artemisia-based drugs have neurological side
effects. People aren’t just exposed to them. Babies, little children, pregnant women, and old people alike must ingest them,
every time they get malaria.
Bed nets are impregnated with pyrethroids, to make them kill mosquitoes – and people have to sleep under them, breathing in
the vapors and rubbing their skin up against the nets.
Researchers and activists have never studied or compared these side effects, or evaluated their risks and benefits. Nor have
they recommended taking these products (or chemotherapy drugs) off the market – which would be shortsighted and tragic.
A half-billion people worldwide get acute malaria every year. Hundreds of thousands are left with permanent brain damage.
Up to two million die.
School children -- ages 6-14 -- who had more than five malaria attacks scored 15% lower than those who had fewer than three
attacks, researchers from Sri Lanka and the World Health Organization found. The DDT effects claimed by the Berkeley study
were trivial by comparison.
I have had malaria over a dozen times. I lost my son, two sisters, and three nephews to it. My nephew Noel got malaria at age
two, and he is still four years behind high school boys of his age in reading and writing skills, because malaria affected his
mental powers so horribly. My nephew Joseph used to help in an office and with complex farming tasks, but, because of
malaria, his mind no longer works.
Many mothers have anemia, premature births, and tiny babies because of malaria, and many people die from other diseases
they would survive if they weren’t so weakened by malaria. These tragedies are repeated all over Africa, Asia and Latin
America.
How can these impacts from malaria possibly be compared to minor effects of DDT on babies, two-year-olds, or nursing
mothers?
Africans must use every available weapon to combat malaria. We cannot afford to let a million of our children die every year,
while we wait decades for a vaccine, better drugs, alternatives to DDT, or genetically modified mosquitoes that can’t carry
malaria parasites.
What we need are risk-benefit studies comparing mothers and children in communities where DDT is used, versus where it is
not used – studies assessing days absent from work or school, days severely ill, mental impairment, financial well-being,
amounts spent on anti-malaria medicines, and death rates.
We need to calculate the value of lives affected by being sick with malaria for weeks every year, of mental capacity lost due to
malaria, of 1.5 million African lives lost every year. Even at $1,000 to $10,000 per life, the impact of malaria – and the value of
DDT – is monumental.
This month, another malaria outbreak hit the Kabale district in southern Uganda. Over 6,000 people were admitted to clinics in
one week. Spraying with Icon resulted in the deaths of two students. That is terrible, but, last year, 70,000 Ugandans died from
malaria. In 65 years, DDT never killed anyone.
Should we stop spraying -- to prevent more deaths from Icon or possible learning delays from using DDT – and sacrifice
another 70,000 Ugandans again this year, and next year, and the year after that?
Yes, there are risks in using DDT – or other anti-malaria weapons. But the risk of not using them is infinitely greater.
Irresponsible, one-sided “studies” and “news” stories frighten people into not using the most effective weapons in our arsenal
– and millions pay the ultimate price. That is unethical and unconscionable.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Science, Ethics, & Human Health
Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes is Coordinator of the Congress of Racial Equality Uganda and a tireless advocate for effective,
life-saving malaria control. She can be reached at fiokob@yahoo.com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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