The World Health Organization is poised to promote broader use of the controversial pesticide DDT in the battle against malaria.
Long banned in the United States because of environmental damage, DDT is used legally in a few impoverished countries to kill
malaria-bearing mosquitoes. It's no longer sprayed outdoors, but indoors - to coat the inside walls of mud huts or other dwellings where mosquitoes lurk. The aim is to protect sleeping families from bites at night.
There has been little progress in recent years in preventing malaria, which sickens up to half a billion people annually and kills
more than 1 million, mostly young children and mostly in Africa.
Now the WHO is strengthening its malaria-fighting campaign, to push more strongly for indoor spraying with a number of insecticides_including DDT as a safe, effective and cheap option for countries to choose, say officials familiar with the announcement, to be made Friday in Washington. Read More.
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