The provincial administration in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands has begun spraying DDT to kill malaria spreading mosquitoes in a part of the region.

A recent malaria outbreak has claimed at least ten lives and hundreds of others are infected in a part of the Lufa district.

The director of health services for the provincial government, Ben Haili, says this week they are starting an exercise to contain the spread using DDT as well as issuing several thousand sleeping nets to families.

Mr Haili says concerns the villagers had about DDT being used eased after they conducted an awareness exercise.

“Because they also saw that malaria is an epidemic in the area. They are now accepting us moving in to conduct DDT spraying. Not so much anywhere else except in their houses - the structures"

wasn't DDT banned or something?

If I remember correctly,
DDT will build up as a residual in fatty tissue in humans.

As with anything, there is always a side effect. So you are choosing which is the lesser of two evils. In this case you are choosing between Malsria and DDT. Cerebral Malaria, has been increasing amongst children in PNG, for some time. So the question is....What other way is there of controlling the Amopheles Mosquito?

If it had not been for DDT, the Panama Canal may never have been completed. Malaria made that area, the whiteman's grave.

Maybe the good Dr Who can provide us with some figures on Malaria, especially amongst dhildren in PNG.


Regards......Ralph.

I'm into public health statistics so another may help.

From public health statistics, Sri Lanka is a good testimony to the effectiveness of the spraying program. In 1948, before the use of DDT, there were 2.8 million cases of malaria. By 1963, there were only 17. Low levels of infection continued until the late 1960s, when the attacks on DDT in the U.S. convinced officials to suspend spraying. In 1968, there were one million cases of malaria. In 1969, the number reached 2.5 million, back to the pre-DDT levels. Moreover, by 1972, the largely unsubstantiated charges against DDT in the United States had a worldwide effect. In 1970, of two billion people living in malaria regions, 79 percent were protected and the expectation was that malaria would be eradicated. Six years after the United States banned DDT, there were 800 million cases of malaria and 8.2 million deaths per year. Even worse, because eradication programs were halted at a critical time, resistant malaria is now widespread and travelers could take it home.

Ralph, thanks for the invitation.

DDT is interesting to discuss.

DDT was banned initially in the US and later was banned in other countries.

Most of the research done on the side-effects of DDT were on animals, e.g bird`s eggs, young birds and other susceptible animals. I am not aware of any studies on DDT accumulation in humans. And so DDT was banned in US. To protect other wild animals.

Recently some commentators have said US banned DDT to protect the interests of its drug companies. No malaria = No sale of drug = No profit! Some reviewers who have reviewed the environmental impact studies of DDT have said, the studies were flawed and the results were manipulated to stop the use of DDT.

Since DDT was banned, there has not been a single effective insecticide against the Anopheles mosquito on the market that has the same potency as DDT. Environmental concerns have also forced research into biological oils as insecticides. Despite numerous publications about natural oils being effective against larvae and adults, none has been produced commercially specifically for fighting against malaria.

Billions of dollars has been pumped into the development of a malaria vaccine but the same can not be said for the search for an environmentally friendly insecticide for use against the malaria vector.

A friend of mine last year told me that DDT has been re-approved for introduction for use against malaria by WHO last year. Though I have not sighted a document that mentions this. However, it should also be noted that, despite the ban on DDT some countries were and are still using it on a smaller scale. eg. in epidermics.

In PNG, I think not enough is done to control malaria. The distribution of bed nets alone is inadequate. The vector numbers also need to be reduced. We may never totally eradicate mossies but we can reduced their numbers so that the incidence of malaria presenting to hospitals is at a manageable level.

Thanks Dr. Who. In this case, I see the point by Ralf saying a little evil to do a greater good, so as you have mentioned that humans studies are not conclusive, Sri lankan case may be something worthwhile to go on. The stats after and before banning of DDT are quite imposing.

We are testing coconut oil and ultrasound against mossie larvae.

Doctors,
I am just curious, now that the topic of DDT has come up. What is the name of the chemical that is used in the noisy spray cars that go around within NCD during the rainy season? I hope they are not spraying DDT on us.

Please verify.

Thanks

I think the spray done from cars is not DDT.

DDT is usually srayed on house walls as it stays on the walls for a long time so as to kill the mossies that land there.

The PNG Health Dept has been granted special exception to import DDT for malaria vector control especially in the Highlands where malaria has become a pandemic while the other areas of PNG (especially coastal areas) are now being introduced to bednets (emersed in some pyrethrum derivatives as insecticides).

As for the fogging operations seen in POM, they (the NCDC) are using something different....not DDT. More information can be obtained from WHO office in POM or Dept. Env & Conservation (Persistent Organic Pollutants POPs Office)

For your info only.