Musings of a Recovering Lutheran: Malaria rates rising in Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah 6:8 (KJV)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Malaria rates rising in Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions

Human factors may be causing an increase in malaria rates in the Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions.

2 comments:

Ken & Carol said...

I don't see any mention of DDT, either here in the article or in the video in the sidebar. This is the way to deal with malaria. Why would one donate to a cause that plays a game with rules like that?

Recovering Lutheran said...

The banning of DDT was one of the worst examples of how "junk science" can kill. While I have some familiarity with the rest of Africa, my experience has been primarily with Tanzania.

According to this report, the ban on DDT was lifted in 2006, a year after my wife and I left. Unfortunately, that means nothing. In Tanzania - as well as in many parts of Africa - the local industrial base is pretty lousy, so I doubt they could even manufacture DDT in sufficient quantities.

That leaves importing DDT - and, brother, just try importing anything of value into Tanzania! Corruption is at horrific levels. I knew several expats who worked with church-based hospitals in Tanzania for years, and just getting basic medical supplies (like syringes, bandages, etc) that would not kill patients remains a major headache. In Tanzania there is also a serious problem with counterfeit drugs, drugs that are well past their expiration date, and the flat-out theft of medical supplies.

I taught computer literacy along with mathematics in a Tanzanian school. Several Americans donated computers and computer equipment, as well at science textbooks. Everything that was shipped to me was stolen - it never arrived in the years I was there. Except once - I got an empty box that had once contained a computer monitor.

Even if the Tanzanian government now allows limited indoor spraying of DDT, I know that most likely little or nothing has actually been done (corruption walks naturally hand-in-hand with incompetence). Only after enough palms have been lined with cash will something approaching effective control of the Anopheles mosquito finally happen.

Tanzania is one of only eight African countries that allows DDT to be used, according to this report. For whatever reason (fear of offending foreign donors who worship in the Green Church, bureaucratic inertia, indifference), the rest do not. That is the cold, ugly fact of the case.