Interrupting the Transmission of Malaria Using DDT, India 1962

A German chemistry student synthesized DDT in 1874, but the insecticidal property of DDT was not discovered until 1939 by Paul Müller in Switzerland. Various militaries in WWII utilized the new insecticide initially for louse-borne typhus. DDT was used for malaria control at the end of WWII after it had proven effective against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. With the success of DDT, the advent of less toxic, more effective synthetic antimalarials, and the enthusiastic and urgent belief that time and money were of the essence, the World Health Organization (WHO) submitted at the World Health Assembly in 1955 an ambitious proposal for the eradication of malaria worldwide. Eradication efforts began and focused on house spraying with residual insecticides, antimalarial drug treatment, and surveillance, and would be carried out in 4 successive steps: preparation, attack, consolidation, and maintenance. Successes included eradication in nations with temperate climates and seasonal malaria transmission. Some countries such as India and Sri Lanka had sharp reductions in the number of cases, followed by increases to substantial levels after efforts ceased. Other nations had negligible progress (such as Indonesia, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Nicaragua). Some nations were excluded completely from the eradication campaign (most of sub-Saharan Africa). The emergence of drug resistance, widespread resistance to available insecticides, wars and massive population movements, difficulties in obtaining sustained funding from donor countries, and lack of community participation made the long-term maintenance of the effort untenable. Completion of the eradication campaign was eventually abandoned to one of control. Recently, India is an important case study on alternative approaches to malaria control. Alternatives include selective vector control using targeted spraying, non-insecticide methods such as larvae-eating fish and biological larvicides, more environmentally friendly pesticides, medicated mosquito nets and institutional strengthening. Biological larvicides and polystyrene beads (used to kill mosquito larva and pupa) have proven highly effective. Bioenvironmental methods have reported up to a 70% reduction in malaria cases. The success of these alternative approaches is critical in a country where the rural mosquito vector that transmits 65% of malaria is resistant to DDT and at least two other pesticides. For more on alternative Malaria control examples, go to Pesticide Action Network UK website on DDT at http://www.pan-uk.org/Info/DDT/index.html . This is clipped from the 1962 film, The War on Malaria, which describes programs of the governments of India and the U.S. to eliminate malaria throughout India. From the Agency for International Development and now available through the US National Archives (NARA)

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Education

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• DDT
• Malaria
• India
• pesticide
• insecticide
• silent
• spring
• Rachel
• Carson
• WHO
• mosquito
• toxic
• hazardous
• chemical
• hazwoper
• NIEHS
• OSHA
• NIOSH
• CDC
• health
• disease
• control
• transmission
• environmental

[TaqiyyaExposer]

It was harmless, Malaria has killed about a billion people in the last five millenia, how many has DDT killed? Not half as many as it has saved. Seatbelts have killed people too, lets ban them.

[pundek123]

DDT should be promoted more often. I love to see retarded kids getting a face full of DDT in the 1940s till the 1960s.

[kogvos]

As usual, it was believed that DDT was harmless. I think it was used in Australia into the 1980's.

[King441]

that kid just copped a faceful of DDT something severe