Along with India, South Africa is perhaps the most prominent country using DDT that has large developed populations. Neither country has reported negative consequences, and many thousands of lives have been saved in both cases.
Ultimately, the use of DDT as a combatant against the spread of malaria has wide-ranging benefits that far outweigh the side effects. Carefully tracking the trajectory of DDT's history demonstrates that most developed nations, including the U.S., took advantage of DDT's benefits during the Global Malaria Eradication Campaign in the 1960s to eliminate the threat of malaria entirely. Their subsequent ban of DDT and the imposition of economic restrictions by the United Nations upon countries still using DDT represent a selective memory at best. The actions of developed nations regarding DDT could also be considered a hypocritical thought process.
Regardless, malaria continues to pose a substantial threat to many countries, mostly in Africa. Only closed-mindedness would lead to jeopardizing the lives of thousands for the sake of questionable academic findings and the potential for harm to the surrounding environment. It is likely that this will remain the case until economic...
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