"There is no more important human right than to live. Without life, all other human rights are irrelevant. Somehow, most of America's and the world's malaria control agencies have forgotten this. Somehow, they have let politically correct ideologies supersede basic humanitarian goals. "We urgently implore you to restore science, medicine and human rights as the cornerstone of our malaria control policies, and ensure that government policies safeguard the children and parents of Africa, Asia and Latin America against this devastating disease."
The letter asks for hearings to examine U.S. programs and appropriations that directly or indirectly affect the treatment of malaria; the abolition of the USAID's ineffective malaria program; and the defunding of any agency or organization that obstructs or fails to support the use of DDT, or exerts anti-pesticide pressure on any African or other developing country that seeks to employ DDT in malaria-control programs.
"The United States and Europe eradicated malaria after World War II, using pesticides and other measures. But today, this vicious killer still infects 300,000,000 people every year in developing countries - more than live in the entire United States. It kills 2,000,000 every year - more than the population of Houston: another father, mother or child every 15 seconds. Nearly 90 percent of these victims are in sub-Saharan Africa, and the vast majority are children and pregnant women. …
"Those victims the disease does not kill, it leaves so weak that they cannot work, go to school, care for their families or cultivate their fields - often for weeks on end. Malaria leaves other people so weak that they die of AIDS, typhus, dysentery, tuberculosis and other diseases that we rarely hear about anymore in America. It depletes these countries' limited medical resources, and plays a major role in making sub-Saharan Africa the most destitute region on that impoverished continent....
"For years, the World Health Organization, United Nations, UNICEF, World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development have promised to bring this killer disease under control. In 1998, the WHO-UN-World Bank's `Roll Back Malaria' campaign pledged to cut malaria disease and death rates in half by 2010. Instead, the rates have actually increased by more than 15 percent in the six years since the pledge was made.
"How is this possible? It is the result of deliberately substituting environmental ideology for evidence-based medicine. These agencies promote and provide financial assistance for drugs and bed nets that do little to reduce malaria. They spend inordinate amounts of money on contractors, reports, conferences and studies. They actively discourage use of the one weapon that does work: pesticides that bring real, immediate, incontestable benefits wherever they are employed...." [In one exercise, bednets treated every 6 to 11 months with permethrin reduced all-cause mortality in children aged from 1 to 11 months by 23%, and mortality did not rebound after the program terminated. Parasitemia was found in 32% of infants compared with 51% in control villages (JAMA 2004;291:2571-2580).]
"South Africa used DDT for years to control malaria. However, in 1996, it bowed to environmentalist pressure and switched to synthetic pyrethroids. When malaria cases and deaths skyrocketed, the government reintroduced DDT for carefully monitored programs that spray tiny amounts of DDT once or twice a year on the eaves and inside walls of traditional mud and thatch huts. Within 18 months, malaria rates plummeted by 80 percent. The country was then able to treat a much smaller number of seriously ill patients with the ACT drug Coartem - and through this two-pronged approach slashed malaria rates by more than 90 percent in just three years!
"Other countries want to copy this successful program. But environmental groups are pressuring them not to use DDT, and are seeking a global ban on the pesticide. European nations threaten to halt the import of agricultural products, if even a trace of DDT is found on any of them. The WHO and Roll Back Malaria refuse to fund DDT programs and hint that they will cut other health-related aid to countries that use the insecticide. The USAID refuses to fund any pesticides and, worst of all, continues to pressure countries to rely on bed nets and not use life-saving DDT....
"Used to spray homes in the worst malarial areas, DDT repels mosquitoes for six months or more, kills any that land on the walls, and disorients or irritates those it does not kill or repel, so they don't bite. No other pesticide has this "triple action" feature. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are far less likely to build immunities to DDT than to other pesticides, which are still used heavily in agriculture. Equally important, the pesticide is not carcinogenic or otherwise harmful to humans; and used in household spraying programs, virtually none will get into the environment....
"It is shortsighted, immoral and inhumane for wealthy, malaria-free countries to prevent African and other nations from using this pesticide to save their people's lives. The British medical journal Lancet and numerous infectious disease experts fully support our position on DDT.
"The New York Times said in a December 22, 2002 editorial: The developed world `has been unconscionably stingy in financing the fight against malaria or research into alternatives to DDT. Until one is found, wealthy nations should be helping poor countries with all available means - including DDT.'
"`There is no charitable way to put it,' said the Washington Times in an April 17, 2004 editorial. `Children are dying, while Westerners worry about fictitious environmental effects. Aid agencies need to drop their opposition to the use of DDT in Africa and encourage the countries now considering using it, to do so.' The Chicago Sun-Times took a similar position a few days later.
"Jurassic Park author (and PhD molecular biologist) Michael Crichton was even more blunt: `Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America,' he said in a September 2003 speech. `We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die, and we didn't give a damn.'
"Ugandan businesswoman Fiona Kobusingye puts this horrendous situation in stark personal terms. `I've had malaria many times since I was little,' she says. `I lost my son, two sisters and two nephews to malaria. Don't tell me a little DDT in our bodies is worse than the risk of losing more children to this disease. African mothers would be overjoyed if this were their biggest worry.'
"In our view, these agencies' continued refusal to support the use of DDT in malaria control programs ignores the complete failure of its current policies. It reflects a serious lapse in ethics and an appalling lack of compassion for the world's most impoverished and disease-ridden people...." Meanwhile, intercontinental spread of pyrimethamine-resistant malaria continues; 67% of parasites are now resistant in Southeast Asia (Science 2004:305:1124).
Many DDP directors have signed this letter; more signatories are needed. For the complete text, call (520) 325-2680 or e-mail jorient@mindspring.com.
DDP has selected the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, as the site for its 23rd annual meeting. Call (800) 675-3267 for reservations. Be sure to mention the "DDP Annual Meeting" to receive our group rates of $49 (7/14/04), $99 (7/15, 7/16), and $59 (7/17, 7/18). Do not miss out on our tour to the Nevada Test Site on Monday, July 18!
DDP, 1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9, Tucson, AZ 85716, (520)325-2680, www.oism.org/ddp