Sickening Incompetence

NRO: World Bank Is Doing A Poor Job Dealing With Malaria

(National Review Online)  After much congressional pressure USAID is now promoting IRS — and allegedly with DDT, a chemical that has long been stigmatized. Contrary to popular belief, DDT has not been shown to cause human cancer. In addition to ridding the developed world of malaria in the mid-20th century, DDT has been used recently in Africa to great effect.

DDT use has been restricted by donors taking a passive stance, requiring countries to pursue every alternative before using DDT. Some donors are more overt in their opposition. Last year, the EU threatened Uganda with trade sanctions if it purchased DDT for public health programs.

Africa Fighting Malaria, a health advocacy group we work with, is lobbying USAID and the World Bank to spend more on anti-malarial drugs, nets, and insecticide and less on technical advice and conferences. They hope to see DDT de-stigmatized and used more widely by African countries. Signatory supporters of their work include Nobel Laureates Archbishop Tutu, F.W. de Klerk, Norman Borlaug, Roy Innis, and Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace).

AFM's campaign has contributed to recent shake-ups in malaria control at USAID, but it is unclear if their message will reach the World Bank and the greater Western public, which has long been told that DDT is unacceptably dangerous.

Dr. Attaran et al. argue the Bank should end its haphazard management and donate the money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. In contrast to the Bank, the Fund disburses money quickly, and is already the largest single donor for malaria control. The Bank disbursed a mere $150 million over the past five years, while the Global Fund disbursed $151 million in under 7 months. The Fund operates more transparently than the Bank, publishing and updating records on its website. It is committed to using all available means to control malaria. Along with bed nets and effective drugs for worldwide use, the Fund is buying DDT for targeted use in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Zambia. We agree that the Bank's money would be better spent by the Fund — where it will promote the image of DDT not as a killer but as a life-saver.

Philip Coticelli is a consultant for Africa Fighting Malaria and works at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Justin Schwab is a graduate student at the University of California (Berkeley). They received no remuneration of any kind from the chemical or pharmaceutical industries for this article.