Uganda’s ministry of health uses DDT indoor residual spraying to fight malaria in Apac. Emmanuel Otalla, minister of state for primary healthcare says that Apac is leading in the whole world in the rate of malaria infection due to numerous mosquito bites.  

According to Dr. John Bahana, Director of the Research Triangle Institute, this program of indoor residual spraying will cover districts like Apac, Oyam, Kitgum, Pader, Gulu and Amuru.

Farmers however say they will not allow their houses to be sprayed with the DDT because of its toxicity and economic effects on their products. A scientific study from South Africa supports this view. 

Researchers led by the University of Pretoria studied 3,310 boys born to women from the Limpopo Province, where DDT spraying was carried out in high-risk areas between 1995 and 2003 to control malaria. The two-year study included 2,396 boys whose mothers had been exposed to DDT and 914 whose mothers had not. 

The study compared boys born to women in the 109 villages that were sprayed, with those born to women from the 97 villages that were not. 

Women who lived in villages sprayed with DDT to reduce malaria gave birth to 33 per cent more baby boys with urogenital birth defects (UGBD) between 2004 and 2006 than women in unsprayed villages, according to research published online by the UK-based urology journal BJUI.( British Journal of Urology International.) 

Women who stayed at home in sprayed villages, rather than being a student or working, had 41 per cent more baby boys with UGBDs, such as missing testicles or problems with their urethra or penis. 

Uganda's Ministry of Health is therefore putting unborn babies in Northern Uganda on serious health risks.

Joe Otim Dramiga, Cologne 

References:  

Lango farmers oppose minister in dispute over DDT-spraying (adungu, News and backgrounds by young radio journalists in Northern Uganda) http://www.adungu.org/?p=70#more-70 

Science Daily, October 23, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091023093221.htm 

British Journal of Urology International Bornman et al. DDT and urogenital malformations in newborn boys in a malarial area.

BJU International, 2009; DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2009.09003.x

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122659339/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0