Malaria is one of the major global health problems and has a devastating impact on many populations, particularly in Africa. The main tools and strategies currently employed to control malaria are medicines for its prevention and treatment, and pesticides (including DDT) to control the mosquito vectors.
Chemical strategies focus on insecticide treated nets and indoor residual spraying. But these chemical applications pose established and suspected risks for human health and the environment. Medical and chemical approaches can become ineffective through development of resistance - by mosquito vectors to chemicals and by parasites to pharmaceuticals. The widely-banned pesticide DDT is still used in many countries to control the vectors of malaria, even though the legally binding Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) calls for its global elimination.
PAN Germany published studies on the unsatisfactory implementation of the Stockholm Convention regarding DDT and also on options for non-pesticidal interventions and examples of successful interventions that do not depend on DDT.
This 6 pages A4 flyer gives an overview on methods to control malaria in the
field of prevention, pathogen control and vector control.
This study presents options and examples of low-risk non-pesticidal malaria control. PAN Germany calls on politicians and financiers of malaria control programmes to promote pesticide-free measures to a greater extent.
The PAN leaflet "Phasing in alternatives to DDT" gives an overview of the environmental and health problems related to the use of DDT, it informs about the global production, use and stocks of DDT and it informs about the international legislation. The main focus is laid on the description of existing alternatives to DDT. Examples are given from Asia, Africa and Latin America where successful vector control had been carried out without DDT.
Objective of the Stockholm Convention is to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants by eliminating such chemicals globally. One of these hazardous chemicals is DDT – which is still being used in vector control programs. This study shows that many players and financiers of malaria control programs do not comply with the requirements of the Stockholm Convention.
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