The Charlotte Capitalist:

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Save The Children. Bring Back DDT! 

Really. I have been talking about the need to bring back DDT for years. Let's get rid of West Nile disease in the Carolinas -- in our lifetimes.

Looks like the New York Times is catching up. Finally. The Environmental Protection Agency under Nixon and the World Health Organization (part of the United Nations) have a lot of blood on their hands.

From NYT:
Yet what really merits outrage about DDT today is not that South Africa still uses it, as do about five other countries for routine malaria control and about 10 more for emergencies. It is that dozens more do not. Malaria is a disease Westerners no longer have to think about. Independent malariologists believe it kills two million people a year, mainly children under 5 and 90 percent of them in Africa. Until it was overtaken by AIDS in 1999, it was Africa's leading killer. One in 20 African children dies of malaria, and many of those who survive are brain-damaged. Each year, 300 to 500 million people worldwide get malaria. During the rainy season in some parts of Africa, entire villages of people lie in bed, shivering with fever, too weak to stand or eat. Many spend a good part of the year incapacitated, which cripples African economies. A commission of the World Health Organization found that malaria alone shrinks the economy in countries where it is most endemic by 20 percent over 15 years. There is currently no vaccine. While travelers to malarial regions can take prophylactic medicines, these drugs are too toxic for long-term use for residents.

Link posted by Exalted Moments @ 7:47 AM