A Case of the DDTs

MILITANTS from Greenpeace have been mounting protests in an effort to close down the only major DDT-production facility in the world, located in Cochin, India. The protesters won’t be getting any support from Jocchonia Gumede, a domestic servant in Johannesburg, South Africa: In the past two years, six of Jocchonia’s close relatives have died from malaria. His family lives in northern KwaZulu Natal, where malaria has always been endemic—Jocchonia himself contracted it twice while growing up—and DDT is simply the cheapest and most effective way to combat this dread disease.

Malaria is now on the increase, not just in Africa but in all tropical regions of the planet. It afflicted well over 300 million people last year, and killed over 1 million. Prof. Wen Kilama of the African Malaria Vaccine Testing Network in Tanzania characterizes the death toll as “equivalent to crashing seven jumbo jets filled with children every day.”

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Roger Bate

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MILITANTS from Greenpeace have been mounting protests in an effort to close down the only major DDT-production facility in the world, located in Cochin, India. The protesters won’t be getting any support from Jocchonia Gumede, a domestic servant in Johannesburg, South Africa: In the past two years, six of Jocchonia’s close relatives have died from malaria. His family lives in northern KwaZulu Natal, where malaria has always been endemic—Jocchonia himself contracted it twice while growing up—and DDT is simply the cheapest and most effective way to combat this dread disease.

Malaria is now on the increase, not just in Africa but in all tropical regions of the planet. It afflicted well over 300 million people last year, and killed over 1 million. Prof. Wen Kilama of the African Malaria Vaccine Testing Network in Tanzania characterizes the death toll as “equivalent to crashing seven jumbo jets filled with children every day.”