/ 16 February 2001

MPUMALANGA WANTS MONEY FOR DDT

MPUMALANGAS health department is seeking national funding to help prevent a repeat of last year’s malaria epidemic, which was the worst in 60 years. Officials said the department needed money for controversial poison DDT to fight the malaria-carrying mosquito, Anopheles Funestus, which transmits the disease all year round. DDT was banned in the US in 1973 after it was linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological damage. – African Eye News Service