DDT Is The Answer
In response to a Los Angeles Times article, CNNMoney countered with an article blasting the Times for blaming the resurgence of malaria in the African highlands solely on global warming.
In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control issued a report that concluded: “Doubts exist as to the plausibility of climate change as proximate cause of epidemic malaria, because global warming cannot explain the World War II epidemics. Dramatic increases in malaria in the 1990s are not mirrored by prospectively collected climate data.”
Last year, faced with a body count that rivals AIDS as the leading killer in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization announced it was giving DDT a “clean bill of health.” DDT is safe for humans and “remarkably effective” when a small amount of DDT is sprayed in the indoor walls of houses and huts, it said.
“DDT presents no health risk when used properly indoors,” Dr. Arata Kochi, director of the WHO’s malaria program told environmental groups at the National Press Club in Washington. “Well-managed indoor spraying programs using DDT pose no harm to wildlife or humans.”
I’m a firm believer in the use of DDT. For developing countries with mosquito problems, it is a must to prevent unnecessary deaths.
Read the rest of the CNNMoney article here.
