Background
At its fourth meeting held in May 2009, the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention, concluded, in its decision SC-4/2: DDT, that “countries that are currently using DDT for disease vector control may need to continue such use until locally appropriate and cost-effective alternatives are available for sustainable transition away from DDT”. The Conference of the Parties requested the Secretariat in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) to “carry out the activities for the assessment of the continued need for DDT for disease vector control as established in the process for reporting on and evaluation DDT and to provide guidance for the Conference of the Parties to make an evaluation at its fifth meeting”, to be held from 25 to 29 April 2011.
Meeting highlights
After extensive deliberations, the DDT Expert Group concluded that in certain settings, there is a continued need for DDT for malaria vector control, until locally appropriate and cost-effective alternatives are deployed for a sustainable transition away from DDT.
The expert group also highlighted the need for consideration of the outcome of the health risk assessment of DDT undertaken by the WHO which will be released soon.
It also concluded on the need for urgent attention on the growing problem of insecticide resistance and lack of evidence on the effectiveness of alternatives under certain settings in some countries leading to continued reliance on DDT.
The Global Alliance for the development and deployment of alternatives to DDT for disease vector control, recently established, is considered by the expert group as a major initiative towards facilitating and promoting the development and deployment of alternatives to DDT in malaria endemic countries.