WHO To Update Malaria Control Guidelines To Endorse Use of DDT, Report Says

The World Health Organization plans to update its malaria control guidelines this summer to endorse the use of the pesticide DDT to control malaria, despite concerns over the adverse effects the chemical could have on the environment, according to a report published in the August issue of the journal Nature Medicine, Reuters Health reports (Reuters Health, 7/31). According to Graham Brown, a professor at the University of Melbourne, findings about DDT's damage to the environment are "not balanced against the benefits in terms of lives saved" (ABC News, 8/2). Don Roberts, a professor of tropical public health at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the U.S., said WHO's decision is "about 20 years too late, but it's a good thing." Some environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club, favor the use of DDT to control malaria. "We think it's important for developing countries to be able to protect the health of their citizens but not to use vast amounts of DDT for growing crops when there are safer alternatives available," Ed Hopkins, director of the Sierra Club's environmental quality program, said (Handwerk, National Geographic News, 8/1). Some scientists from Greenpeace still oppose lifting the restriction on DDT, ABC News reports (ABC News, 8/2). In addition, some scientists said that if the chemical is used widely to control malaria, it should be monitored strictly to ensure that it is not misused in agriculture and that insects do not develop resistance to it, National Geographic News reports (National Geographic News, 8/1).