Dr. Coburn Applauds the World Health Organization’s Return to Sound Science in Battle Against Malaria:
WHO releases position paper on IRS, DDT
September 15, 2006
To read WHO's press release with a summary of the importance and impact of these new IRS guidelines, please click here.
To read the position paper detailing the newly released WHO guidelines, please click here.
To read the statement delivered by Dr. Arata Kochi, Director of the World Health Organization’s Malaria Department, at the release of WHO DDT guidelines, please click here.
Read Dr. Coburn's complete statement below.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), today applauded the bold leadership of the World Health Organization for its dramatic shift in malaria control policies to aggressively encourage and promote insecticide spraying inside homes, including programs using the most cost effective insecticide, DDT. As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management Dr. Coburn has held 2 hearings on the need for the adoption of similar policies by the U.S. Agency for International Development and has been vigorously overseeing the implementation of President Bush’s new malaria initiative, which includes substantive increases in support for indoor spraying with DDT in Africa.
“The new WHO position paper on house spraying for malaria control is a revolutionary document. The junk science and stigma surrounding DDT – the cheapest and most effective insecticide on the planet – have finally been jettisoned. The WHO policies expressed today represent a return to proven methods that eliminated malaria from wealthy countries. These science-based methods will save millions of lives, and Dr. Kochi deserves praise for bringing compassion and common sense back to the WHO,” Dr. Coburn said.
“Under the leadership of President Bush, the U.S. has begun to support indoor spraying for malaria control in Africa, including programs using DDT. I hope that these strong new policies on spraying and DDT from the WHO will encourage more donors to do the same, and I call on every nation whose citizens are suffering under the crushing burden of malaria to implement these new WHO policies.
“As the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the American people and their elected officials are eager to see the Fund adopt these WHO policies in every country operating Global Fund-supported malaria control programs. The Fund has been quick to get behind sound science in the past and we hope they will continue to do so,” Dr. Coburn said.
For more information on Dr. Coburn’s most recent work on malaria, please visit Dr. Coburn's Oversight Action page on this website by clicking here.
