Stop the talk, spray DDT to fight malaria

May 28, 2007

I have been closely following the debate and reports about the planned in-door spraying of DDT to curb malaria and I have now grown impatient.

Barnabas Atwiine

I have been closely following the debate and reports about the planned in-door spraying of DDT to curb malaria and I have now grown impatient.

As a medical doctor, I come into contact with malaria everyday. I witness malaria devastate people’s lives, shattering the hopes of parents as they lose their children, while mothers lose their pregnancies. I have seen poor parents sell all they have in their quest for medical care. Worst of all, young children become permanently crippled by the neurological sequel of complicated malaria.

I worked on the children’s ward of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital where about 40% of admissions there were due to complicated malaria, which accounted for more than 70 % of the total mortalities. Nine out of 10 children who were transfused had severe anaemia caused by malaria.

In Kagando Hospital, Kasese, where I worked for some time, about 60% of paediatric admissions were due to malaria, a number of which were complicated, which resulted into several mortalities. In Kisoro Hospital, where I work, about 50% of the children on the ward have malaria! I have no time to talk about the out-patient, internal, adult medicine and maternity departments, all of which handle scores of malaria patients.

There is no telling how much a reduction of the incidence of malaria in our population would go to reduce health care spending both for the country and individual homes. The few and overstretched medical staff would be utilised to manage other illnesses that affect our people.

The debate on the spray of DDT has gone on for so long that I wonder why it never comes to a conclusion. Innocent children and mothers are dying of a disease that is otherwise easy to prevent and treat, if handled early enough.

DDT may have some side-effects on human and environmental health, just like all drugs do. For example, paracetamol and aspirin cause hepatitis and peptic ulcerations, respectively, but their benefits usually outweigh their dangers, especially when used in the correct doses and right instructions. It is for such precautions that DDT is intended for indoor spraying. Unfortunately, due to the debate, young children and mothers are not living long enough to suffer the dangers that their mature counterparts want to protect them from.

The Government should stop the talk and spray DDT to save lives.

The writer is a medical officer, Kisoro District Hospital

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});