Published 11 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1942
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1942

News

Agencies scale up search for alternatives to DDT to control malaria

John Zarocostas

1 Geneva

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have launched a new initiative to boost the use of environmentally friendly, sustainable alternatives to the toxic chemical DDT, used to control malaria.

WHO estimates that every year malaria kills about a million people worldwide, more than 90% of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa, and causes around 300 million cases of acute illness every year, three quarters in children.

The initiative, backed by nearly $40m (£27m; {euro}30m) in funding from the Global Environmental Facility, a partnership of international institutions, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector, foresees the introduction of 10 projects in about 40 nations in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, Asia, and the Pacific. These projects aim to build on the successful results of pilot projects conducted in Mexico and central America.

The pilot projects, carried out in eight countries between 2003 and 2008 by UNEP and the Pan . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ