Protests in Lango over the use of DDT resulted in the detention and arrests of several people. Organic growers in Lango have considered suing the government for potential losses. Nine companies also have sued the government.

Accountability and corruption are also impediments to effectively managing health issues. The Global Health Fund is currently pressuring Uganda to return money that was pilfered from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by government officials entrusted with the funds.

Uganda still has time to redeem itself and avoid further international embarrassment by utilizing a chemical that has been banned in most of the world.

Unless the Ugandan government wises up, Uganda’s “Gifted by Nature” slogan could soon change to “Sprayed by DDT.” DDT is bad for Uganda’s image, bad for business and bad for tourism.

~ Hellen Otii

New Vision (Kampala) | NEWS | 5 August 2008 | By Anthony Bugembe | Kampala

THE health ministry is now spraying mosquito-infested areas in northern Uganda with ICON, an alternative to DDT to curtail malaria.

This follows the May 30 High Court order to stop the use of DDT after activists said it would cause harm.

“We have sprayed ICON in Pader and Kitgum districts. The exercise is also ongoing in Soroti,” said Stephen Mallinga, the minister.

He added that they were awaiting the outcome of the court process before continuing with DDT spraying.

Dr. Sam Zaramba, the director general of health services said they were preparing a response to give to the Attorney-General who is going to counter the petition.

About 400 people die of malaria everyday in Uganda. Mallinga said malaria cases and deaths had dropped in Apac by 20% and Oyam by 40% after the DDT spraying.

The health ministry launched indoor residual spraying in the districts in February. It was planning to roll out the campaign to other parts of the country when the High Court stopped the exercise.

An organic cotton exporter told The East African that improper home spraying had contaminated “farm-tools, bicycles and produce.” A committee set up to assure compliance with WHO standards has apparently never met. Uganda (the only East African country using DDT to battle malaria) argues that DDT is 50% cheaper than a pyrethroid insecticide alternative.

In South Africa, Zambia and Ethiopia, DDT is sprayed in townships, far removed from agricultural areas. In Uganda, however, spraying is conducted in rural villages where crops are frequently grown.

Source: PANNA

“The High Court in Kampala has ordered the Ministry of Health to suspend the spraying of DDT until there is a ruling on a suit that seeks to stop the spraying of the chemical in northern Uganda.

According to the interim court order, issued last Friday by Justice Arach Amoko, any spraying of the insecticide will be “null and void or otherwise illegal”.

The article promotes the government’s preposterous view that DDT is not a toxic substance.

“There has been no compelling evidence of the harm posed by DDT to human health, and defenders of the chemical say that its public health benefits cannot be ignored.”

Rodney Muhumuza / Monitor (Kampala)

The government is embroiled in a court battle with nine companies from Lango over the use of Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT), a chemical used to kill mosquitoes that transmit malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.

The companies sued the government for sanctioning the Indoor Residual Spraying of DDT in Lango sub-region.

The spraying was designated to start in the districts of Oyam, Apac and Lira.

Lango Cooperative Union, Lango Organic Farming Promotion, Dunavant Uganda Limited and Bio Weevil Uganda Limited are among the complainants seeking court intervention.

The companies accuse the government of sanctioning DDT use without fulfilling some obligations.

“The decision by the government to introduce DDT in the districts is illegal as it contravenes the provisions of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants of 2001,” the case filed through Tumusiime Kabega and Nile Law Chambers Advocates reads in part.

The companies are seeking an order of interim stay of the spraying of DDT pending the determination of their earlier application for judicial review.

They further accuse the government of engaging the services of Research Triangle International (RTI), a private company which has not observed the necessary precautions for safe usage of DDT.

The nine companies said if the government is allowed to implement its decision, the people of Lango sub-region would suffer irreparable loss and diverse health problems.

Earlier in April, organic farmers in Lango sub region rejected DDT spraying in their houses demanding an assurance from the government of compensation when their products lose market from their buyers.

Speaking in a consultative meeting organised between the team from the Ministry of Health led by the State Minister for Health, Dr Emmanuel Otaala, and Apac District leaders recently, the farmers asked the minister to explain whether the government would compensate them when their products are contaminated.

“I would like to assure organic farmers in Apac that DDT is not bad and it is going to be sprayed inside the houses but not in the fields,” Dr Otaala said.

DDT is one of the best known synthetic pesticides. It is a chemical with a unique and controversial history.

The Monitor (Kampala) | NEWS 22 May 2008

As the use of DDT to fight mosquitoes spreading Malaria in Uganda begins to take shape, it is emerging that men born to mothers exposed to lingering amounts of the pesticide might have an increased risk of getting testicular cancer.

This is according to a study published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, in the USA. The cancer that affects young men in their 20s and 30s is said to be on the increase around the world.

“Because evidence suggests that testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are initiated very early in life, it is possible that exposure to these persistent organic pesticides during fetal life or via breast feeding may increase the risk of TGCT in young men,” the findings read in part.

Researchers examined blood samples from 739 men in the U.S. military who had testicular cancer and 915 men who did not. They found that men with the highest levels of DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene), which is created when the environment or body breaks down DDT, were 70 per cent more likely to develop testicular cancer than those who had the lowest levels of DDE.

In the early years of World War II, DDT was used with great effect to control mosquitoes spreading malaria, typhus, and other insect-borne diseases among both military and civilian populations.

As a result of their findings, the researchers want further examination of the association of pesticides such as DDT with testicular cancer in other populations, particularly given that more widespread use is being considered in the developing world.

Usage of DDT was condemned by environmentalists leading to its ban. But in Uganda, following approval from the National Environmental Management Authority, the government has reintroduced the chemical and spraying has kicked off in two northern districts of Apac and Oyam. Where it is being employed, usage of the chemical is under strict World Health Organisation guidelines.

Debate still rages over the human toll caused by the deadly malaria parasite and DDT’s potential long-term harm to people’s health and the environment.

Activists against the chemical argue that there are several alternatives that can be used to control malaria. But the government insists that internal residue spraying using DDT is the most cost effective malaria control method. Malaria kills more than 100,000 Ugandans, most of them children, every year.

For a reaction on the study findings, the State Minister for Health [General Duties] Dr Richard Nduhuura referred this writer to the Director General of Health Services Dr Sam Zaramba, who comments on technical issues on behalf of the ministry.

But on all the three occasions that we tried to reach him yesterday he said he was too busy to talk to us. However at last year’s East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA) Health Ministers’ Conference in Arusha, where Dr Nduhuura represented Uganda, the use of DDT got a blessing with delegates concurring that the chemical’s public health benefits far out weighed the environmental fears.

Similarly, responding to a question on the subject matter posed to him by this writer last year, Dr Yesim Tozan, a research associate with Fogarty International Center under the US’ National Institutes of Health said the risks to public health by deployment of DDT or other insecticides must be carefully weighed against the benefits, in this case the prevention of malaria.

He however, observed that “the possible adverse consequences of human exposure to DDT cannot be ignored, even with limited evidence, and merit further study.”

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Study_links_testicular_cancer_to_DDT.shtml

By Ronald Odongo

Oyam, April 11, 2008: Police in Oyam district are holding about five organic workers attached to Loro Sub County for allegedly inciting people to resist the spraying of DDT in their individual houses.

Lawrence Odur 32, Salvatori Omara 36 all residents of Acan Pii parish in Loro Sub County were intercepted on Wednesday night by the security operatives who were deployed to crackdown anti DDT spray gangs in the district. Some organic staff are reported to be on the run due to fear of the police arrest, according to the district chief.

Colonel Charles Okello Engola the Oyam LC5 district chairperson says some people are going around deliberately mobilising local people against the spraying of the DDT insecticide in the district.

DDT spray is being piloted in the districts of Apac and Oyam to reduce mosquitoes. It was launched recently by the minister of Health Dr. Steven Malinga.

Engola says police are hunting for about three organic workers attached to Loro Sub County all accused of inciting people local people to wage war on the DDT spray team in the area. He says the exercise would help reduce malarial infections.

The spraying of DDT started last Friday in Oyam district. More than 3000 houses have been sprayed in the five sub counties of Minakulu, Loro, Aber, Achaba and Iceme.

Section of the district councilors are resisting the exercise claiming it has side effects that is very harmful to human life however they are not very specific on the side effect of the DDT drug.

However there is high resistance among some district councilors, LC5 Chairperson Col. Okello Engola has vowed to spray all the houses in the district.

Walter Omara an organic specialist argued that organic faming system has large coverage in Loro Sub County saying that the Oyam district leaders should carry massive sensitizations.

He added that local people are resisting the use of DDT themselves, contrary to what the district chairman has said.

The district leaders warned that police shall continue arresting some people who have launched business of decampaigning the exercise. Oyam district chief Colonel Engola urged Organic specialists to support the DDT spray in the district that the bid to reduce malarial infection in the district.

http://www.langoweb.net/oyam.htm

Districts Protest DDT Spray Over Organic Cotton

New Vision (Kampala) | NEWS 13 May 2008 | By Patrick Okino

Lira, Amolatar and Dokolo districts have protested the planned spray of DDT in their area, saying it would affect the production of organic cotton.

Johnson Engole, the chairman of Lango Cooperative Union, told the parliamentary committee on tourism, trade and industry last week that the use of DDT in Oyam and Apac districts was expected to reduce the volume of organic cotton this year.

“We are urging people in these areas (Oyam and Apac) to grow conventional cotton, not organic, because of the DDT that was sprayed,” Engole told the committee headed by Rose Munyira Wabwire at Ngetta ginnery.

DDT was sprayed in the districts last month to fight malaria. The MPs were touring cotton ginneries and historical places in Bugisu, Teso and Lango.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200805140095.html

USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is presently implementing a $150 million-dollar contract for malaria control, using DDT for Indoor Residential Spraying (IRS) programs in Uganda. Congested, government-created camps riddled with diseases like HIV/AIDS and TB in war-ravaged northern Uganda were sprayed this past February, as part of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), announced by George Bush in 2005.

One of the first countries to begin IRS under the new initiative, Uganda presents an interesting case, particularly because of its reputation for corruption and notorious lack of transparency of its Health Ministry and healthcare system. In August of 2005, Uganda was temporarily suspended as a beneficiary of the Global Health Fund due to embezzlement and graft by high-level officials and staff.

15 African countries will be targeted with the $1.2 Billion-dollar initiative, which aims to cut malarial deaths in half. Funding for the program comes from USAID, the Centers for Disease Control, and other institutions including The Global Health Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria, which disburses funds sourced from the public and private sector; among the fund’s largest donors is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Listen to the Africa Malaria Day 2007 PANNA Briefing

(Risks and Effects of DDT)

Download the File (Right Click and ‘Save As’)

From Kenya to Alaska, to New Orleans, DDT toxicity is discussed by experts and researchers from UC Berkeley, PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) and other institutions.

There are Effective Alternatives

• Kenya has reported a 40% decrease in infant mortality with the use of bed nets alone.
• Many researchers support the use of insecticide treated nets: “According to Professor Snow, the best way to prevent malaria is simple and doesn’t cost a lot: “A mosquito net impregnated with an insecticide is the best solution. They’re very cheap, if they’re given away free and lots of people use them, they can cut the risk of contracting malaria by 50 percent. Mosquito nets can also reduce child mortality by 16 percent”.
• Jessie Stone, a physician working in Uganda, referring to DDT’s potentially lethal effects, suggested the following alternatives in a NY Times letter to the editor:”. . .DDT is not the magic bullet that will eradicate malaria. We need to refocus resources and attention on . . . basic malaria education, and prevention with insecticide-treated bed nets. A mosquito net costs $6.50 and can last up to five years.”
• Vitamin A and Zinc supplements has effectively reduced malaria by as much as 30% in children:“These results suggest that combined vitamin A plus Zinc supplementation reduces the risk of fever and clinical malaria episodes among children, and thus may play a key role in malaria control strategies for children in Africa.”
• “DDT harms human health and is not the best way to control malaria,” says Henry Diouf of Pesticide Action Network Africa. “Malaria is a disease of poverty, and addressing poverty is the long term solution. In the short term, safer and more effective approaches like bed nets, rapid identification and treatment of malaria cases and local education about mosquito control are needed in Africa – not more DDT.”

Mismanagement of Global Health = A Silent Holocaust

“Now, the IMF and the World Bank basically don’t block increases in health spending, if donors come forward. But, I don’t believe they also realize the urgency, and they don’t speak up and say in public what they say in private. In private they know that there is a silent tsunami, silent holocaust underway in rural Africa with mass death. They know that there is not enough budgetary support to hire doctors and nurses and to keep proper provisioning of the health system –– Jeffrey Sachs”

More Study is Needed

While DDT was recently re-authorized for use by the WHO, the long-term effects of DDT on humans has been understudied. Researchers and scientists at a recent DDT conference at Alma College in Michigan agreed that “much more study and research is needed to determine with certainty what impact exposure to DDT has on humans and the environment.”

Researchers in the field state that there is not enough research on the impact of DDT on immunity, its interaction with other diseases such as AIDS and TB, or the effect of DDT when mixed with other strong chemicals, like antiretroviral drugs.

Most significantly, risk-benefit analysis has not been carried out with DDT to gauge its effectiveness as a malarial control agent, in relation to the serious and lasting toxic effects that it causes. Use of DDT is tantamount to wanton killing and eradication of future generations of Africans.

~ Written by Hellen Otii

A broad coalition of health and toxics experts from every continent called on the World Health Organization to reverse its aggressive promotion of DDT for malaria control and expressed outrage at the agency for a statement giving DDT spraying inside people’s homes a “clean bill of health.”

“It is criminal that WHO should make a politically-motivated announcement like this under the guise of protecting the health of children in Africa,” said Dr. Paul Saoke, Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility in Kenya. “We need real solutions to malaria in Africa, not a return to widespread reliance on a failed silver bullet that risks the health of communities already battling this deadly disease.”

WHO’s September 15th press statement described a “new” approach to malaria control with DDT at the centerpiece of an aggressive effort to eradicate the disease. Sources inside the agency, however, report that there has been no reassessment of DDT risk and no official revision of WHO’s policy, which already allowed minimal use of DDT in accordance with the global Stockholm Convention. One of WHO’s chief malaria experts, Dr. Allan Schapira, resigned abruptly prior to the announcement promoting DDT use by the controversial new head of WHO’s global malaria program, Dr. Arata Kochi. Roughly half of the Roll Back Malaria staff have reportedly resigned since Kochi took over leadership of the program.

“DDT harms human health and is not the best way to control malaria,” says Henry Diouf of Pesticide Action Network Africa.

“Malaria is a disease of poverty, and addressing poverty is the long term solution. In the short term, safer and more effective approaches like bed nets, rapid identification and treatment of malaria cases and local education about mosquito control are needed in Africa – not more DDT.”

In their announcement before hundreds of government officials at the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety in Budapest, Hungary, Pesticide Action Network International, the International POPs Elimination Network and the International Society of Doctors for the Environment emphasized their support for the Stockholm Convention’s approach to DDT. The global toxics treaty, which has been adopted by 129 countries, calls for a phaseout of DDT but allows short term use in some countries while safer and more effective alternatives are put in place.

“We reached a consensus on the adverse health effects of DDT in the course of negotiating the Stockholm Convention,” says medical toxicologist Romeo Quijano, professor at the College of Medicine of the University of Philippines in Manila, President of Pesticide Action Network Philippines, and Board member of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia and the Pacific. “WHO’s announcement undermines this consensus, and goes against the agency’s mandate to be at the forefront of protecting health and the environment worldwide.”

“Why has WHO suddenly decided to undermine an important global treaty?” asks Dr. Mariann Lloyd-Smith, co-chair of the International POPs Elimination Network and Director of the Australian National Toxics Network.

“The agency’s job is to help countries control malaria and reduce their reliance on DDT. Since there is no new evidence supporting increased use of DDT, we can only assume WHO’s leadership is listening to the DDT advocates in the U.S.”

Dr. Kochi’s announcement has strong support from the Bush Administration, which recently changed the policy of the US Agency for International Development to increase reliance on DDT in its malaria programs. Bush Administration supporter Senator Tom Coburn was quoted in WHO’s press statement, which was released from Washington DC rather than WHO headquarters in Geneva.

“The recent shift in US policy reflects a well organized DDT promotion campaign by a handful of aggressive advocates,” says Kristin Schafer, Program Coordinator for Pesticide Action Network North America. “This effort is supported by conservative organizations and think tanks with funding from the U.S. pesticide industry, including Monsanto.”

“The international community must listen to the voices of people directly affected by DDT, whether in India and China where DDT is produced or in African countries where its use is being promoted,” says Jayakumar Chelaton, Director of THANAL (Thanal Conservation and Environment Network). Chelaton works with the Eloor-Edayar communities in India that are calling for clean up of contamination caused by the DDT production facility there.

“We join in demanding that WHO reverse this irresponsible promotion of DDT, and we urge the international community to investigate how politics managed to trump science and common sense at WHO.”

Decades of scientific evidence counter the claims of the DDT promoters that its use for malaria control is harmless. Human reproductive disorders associated with DDT are well documented, including undescended testes and poor sperm quality, premature delivery and reduced infant birth weights and reduced breast milk production. One recent study found clear neurological effects—including developmental delays—among babies and toddlers exposed to DDT in the womb Researchers in Mexico and South Africa found elevated levels of DDT in the blood of people living where DDT was used to control malaria, and breastfed children in those areas received more DDT than the amount considered “safe” by WHO and FAO. Studies have also linked exposure to increased risk of breast cancer, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists DDT as a possible human carcinogen.

More effective and safer approaches to malaria control are now being used in many countries. For example, Vietnam reduced malaria deaths by 97% and malaria cases by 59% when they switched in 1991 from trying to eradicate malaria using DDT to a DDT-free malaria control program involving distribution of drugs and mosquito nets and widespread health education organized with village leaders. Mexico phased out DDT use in 2000 and implemented a successful integrated and community-based approach.

Available for interviews:

Dr Paul Saoke, MD, Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Kenya. Hotel Bara, Budapest. 36-1-2094905, Rm 320, psaoke@isde.org

Henry Diouf, Pesticide Action Network Africa (Senegal). Hotel Bara, Budapest. 36-1-2094905, Rm 121, henrydiouf@panafrique.org

Jayakumar Chelaton, Director, Thanal (India). Hotel Bara, Budapest. 36-1-2094905, Rm 334, jayakumar.c@gmail.com

Peter Orris, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM, Professor and Director, Occupational Health Services Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public. +1 312-864-5550, porris@uic.edu

Romeo Quijano, President, Pesticide Action Network Philippines. Hotel Bara, Budapest. 36-1-2094905, Rm 128, romyquij@yahoo.com

Kristin Schafer, Program Coordinator, Pesticide Action Network North America, kristins@panna.org.

Mariann Lloyd-Smith, Co-Chair, International POPs Elimination Network and Director, National Toxics Network Australia. Hotel Bara, Budapest. 36-1-2094905, Rm 302, biomap@oztoxics.org

East African Business Week (Kampala)

NEWS
26 March 2007
Posted to the web 26 March 2007

By Daniel Karibwije

Balton Rwanda, has introduced a non toxic and environmentally friendly spray, Bi-star to combat the deadly malaria disease.

In a recent interview with Business Week at his offices in Kigali , the country manager of Balton Rwanda Mr. Bob Gatera expressed the desire for his company to improve public health in the country.

“Our company is anti-DDT. We have done trials using Bi-star in Nyarutarama in Kigali and we have been largely successful,” Mr. Bob Gatera said.

Unlike DDT, Bi-star is bio-degradable and favourable to the eco-system. Bi-star is being floated by Balton Rwanda to compliment ICON that has already been endorsed by the Government of Rwanda.

Mr. Canelas Joaquim, the programme manager of RTI contracted to supply ICON, said the spray was recommended by environment officials and it does not have any side effects.

ICON like Bi-star, is an indoor residual spray that targets the anopheles mosquito responsible for the transmission of malaria. Rwanda’s Lands and Environment Minister Mr. Christophe Bazivamo said the government would not go against international conventions that ban the use of DDT and would only look at environmentally friendly alternatives. Bi-star is manufactured by Makheteshim Chemical Works Ltd, an Israeli company.

Starting July this year, the health ministry and USAID will launch the spray of ICON in homes. Speaking to the local media in December 2006, Joaquim said the spraying will be carried out in three phases and will coincide with the rainy season.

The wet season favours the multiplicaton of mosquitoes and their breeding areas tend to blossom due to abundant stagnant water.

Uganda on the other hand approved the use of DDT in the fight against malaria early this year.

The National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) confirmed that DDT would be sprayed in Ugandan homes starting April 2007 to kill mosquitoes and combat the deadly malaria.

“NEMA is hearby approving an integrated approach to malaria control involving the use of DDT, pyrethroids control, insecticide treated nets, biological control methods and environmental sanitation options,” the executive director of NEMA Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha wrote in a statement to the Uganda’s ministry of health early this year.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200703261026.html