DAR ES SALAAM, 8 May (IRIN): In its effort to reduce the number people contracting malaria in Tanzania, the government said on Monday it planned to lift its ban on the use of the pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, known as DDT, which is feared to threathen the environment.
– The insecticide is effective in fighting the killer disease, David Mwakyusa, the East african countrys minister for health and social welfare, said after returning form an African Union meeting on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
Though the chemical has been effective in killing the mosquitoes that spread malaria; the lice (lus) that carries typhus; and other insect-borne human diseases since the 1949s; many countries started banning its use in the 1960s because of possible side effects to humans.
However, Mwakyusa said other African countries, including South Africa, were now using the chemical again.
One third of all out-(ambulante)patients at hospitals and health clinics in Tanzania suffer from malaria. Worldwide, the disease kills around 100.000 people each year, including 70.000 children under five years old.
Mwakyusa said that besides using DDT, the government would undertake other efforts to prevent people from getting bitten by malaria transmitting mosquitoes, such as encouraging them to sleep under bed nets.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
