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April 2007 |
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Providing Sustainable Alternatives to DDT for Malaria Vector Control in Mexico and Central America Every year one to three million people around the world die from malaria. Malaria is a transboundary problem affecting most tropical countries. In Mesoamerica, over 89 million people live in areas environmentally suitable to the transmission of malaria, of which 35 percent are highly endemic areas. Only an integrated regional approach can address the human and environmental challenges in malaria prone areas. DDT has been extensively used as an insecticide for malaria vector control and in agriculture in Mexico and Central America since the 1950’s. It is sprayed not only in households but also on water surfaces in an attempt to control mosquito breeding. Unfortunately, DDT and its metabolites are highly stable toxic compounds that persist in the environment for many years and can accumulate in living organisms. Concerns about DDT residues in water, sediment, soil, and food chain in Mexico and Central America have spurred the development of a GEF-UNEP project aimed at malaria vector control in Mexico and Central America without the use of DDT. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the executing agency in charge of coordination and the Ministry of Health in each participating country—Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama—is executing the project. The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is also an active partner. With the project nearing completion, one of its major positive benefits is a decrease of malaria incidences in the demonstration areas. The level of reduction by country demonstration area varies from 80 percent in Belize to 27 percent in Guatemala, with an average of 61 percent for the whole subregion. The project has emphasized physical controls with environmental sanitation interventions targeted to high risk households, such as clean house, clean backyard, and liming of the households. At the community level, the project has focused on control of breeding sites within drainage systems, and removal of mud and vegetation and sanitary landfills, combined with biological control methods. The project has also strengthened institutional capabilities for malaria control. Malaria control national managers, officials from the environmental and education sectors, and local technicians from the demonstration projects in the eight countries have benefited from training activities in malaria transmission risk factor, participating in the exchange of experiences, and discussing new methodologies proposed by the malaria-integrated control model. Over the next six months, TREDI Co. in France will eliminate 136.7 metric tones of DDT and 64.5 metric tones of other POPs identified during the implementation of the project. This activity will mark the end of a successful multi-stakeholder project that has introduced suitable and acceptable alternatives to the use of DDT in malaria vector control in the eight countries in Central America and Mexico, while at the same time significantly decreasing the number of deadly malaria cases. |
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