Have you seen this picture?
That’s President Bush, dancing at a benefit for Malaria Awareness Day. The picture is priceless, but I’ll restrain myself. This is once I can’t fault the administration too much.
In 2005, Bush launched the President’s Malaria Initiative which has, among other things, helped support the use of DDT in many African countries.
Yesterday, Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM), a NGO that helped bring DDT back, scored donor countries on their efforts fighting malaria. On their scorecard, the US ranks above everyone else, getting an impressive B+. Considering most other countries got themselves big, fat Fs that’s really good.
Things weren’t always so rosy, of course. In fact, before AFM and others took the US Agency for International Development to task, the agency was spending about 7% of its budget on actual interventions. the rest went to “other” costs. After Congress intervened, things at USAID have improved dramatically and they’re now working closely with AFM.
But that still leaves all the other donors, who are—litreally—failing in their efforts to fight malaria.
For the purposes of the scorecard, those countries “got an F because they never even responded,” AFM’s Richard Tren told me yesterday at a fundraiser in New York for the NGO.
Maybe it’s time to rustle up pictures of those leaders.
The administration’s antimalaria drive certainly has potential, but before endorsing it or the widespread return to DDT, people should probably bone up on the tangled history of this field. The new push could work, but as I pointed out a few months ago, it could also fail catastrophically. Considering the way it’s been run so far, I’d give it about 50/50 odds, despite what international boosters are claiming.
How could it fail catastrophically? DDT use in indoor residual spray (IRS) programs have a better record of success than any other approach.
Moreover, using DDT in IRS programs is NOT “widespread return to DDT.” DDT use was “widespread” when it was used as an agricultural insecticide.
To so dismissively treat the Bush Admin’s AID reforms and funding of DDT IRS programs reveals a major bias. It is nothing short of a revolution in the fight against malaria and one that was a long time in coming.
Congratulations to Richard Tren, AFM, and Bush for bringing reason and humanity back to the fore.
Alan, no one is endorsing the widespread return to DDT. It’s simply back on the table with all of the other malaria control interventions, where it should be.
While USAID and DFID are more open about program and spending priorities than other agencies, no one is rigorously measuring malaria cases and deaths. African countries need more labs, more trained technicians and better epidemiological surveillance to inform health policy decisions.
Malaria remains essentially an African problem since other countries took the right measures and were successful at eradicating the menace.
African Leaders should wake up and take on the opportunity presented by their partners who have increased funding to wards its eradication by committing their own resources and supporting meaningful policies including the recent WHO lifting of the ban on DDT for IRS.
They must understand that their people don’t understand the sweeping statements which claim to half cases of deaths in a certain year.
I applaude Africa Fighting Malaria for their tireless campaigning. The causes of transparency in donor aid and sensible policies re: DDT and IRS have benefited greatly from their persistence and willingness to be unpopular champions of doing the right thing.
50/50 odds = better than the Same Old, Same Old. Keep hope alive, AFM.