Guyana continues to encounter malaria as a major public health problem. While significant progress have been made in the last five (5) years in the prevention and control of malaria in Guyana, there are significant problems in sustaining reduced level of malaria incidences in Guyana in the last 12 months.
The use of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) as the insecticide used for indoor residual spray (IRS) in the 1950s, led to the elimination of malaria from Guyana’s coast.
According to Guyana’s Health Minister, while the Stockholm Convention includes special provisions for the phase out of DDT, it also provides for DDT continued use for malaria control in countries with specific exemption.
Guyana, like many other poor countries need increase donor funding for not only malaria prevention and control but also for research and with the present non-availability of DDT – either allowing its availability or the international community providing sustained support for alternative control methods.
Minister Ramsammy says he believes that almost one million deaths of persons because of malaria and the countless other deaths caused by other vector-borne diseases around the world make it an imperative for Global authorities to re-think policies relating to DDT. DDT has been an effective tool to control mosquito population in countries around the world before the virtual ban of DDT.
The case against DDT as a harmful environmental chemical is weak compared to the fact that millions are dying and hundreds of millions are sick and disabled and becoming impoverished because of mosquito-borne diseases. The virtual banning of DDT is a policy that cannot be justified, and as climate change causes a new surge in mosquito population, there is a need to use all effective vector control chemicals at our disposal.
The Minister pointed out that most of the rich countries used DDT to once control vector like mosquitoes. Today, these are the countries in the forefront of the policies to ban the use of DDT in developing countries.
