India supports South Africa in its fight against Malaria
CANARA XTRA
New Delhi: Supporting the fight against Malaria, HIL (India) Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has supplied 20.60 Metric tonne of DDT to South Africa on Monday.
The Department of Health, South Africa will be utilising DDT for its Malaria control program in three province adjoining Mozambique. The region is highly affected with Malaria and it has reported maximum morbidity and mortality due to the disease in recent years.
HIL (India) is the sole manufacturer of DDT globally. The company was incorporated in the year 1954 to manufacture and supply DDT to Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for malaria control programme. In the year 2019-20, the product was supplied to 20 States in the country. The Company is also exporting the product to many African countries.
Malaria continues to be one of the major public health problems gobally. In 2018, an estimated 228 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and most malaria cases and deaths (93%) were reported from African Region. In the South East Asia Region, India accounts for majority of cases and death.
Spraying of insecticides inside the human habitants that is Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) has proven to be effective mosquito control tool. World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends DDT as one of the efficient IRS chemical to curb malaria mosquito menace and it is widely used by Southern African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique etc. and India.
The Company is further in process of supplying DDT 75% WP to Zimbabwe (128 MT) and Zambia (113 MT) in the current FY 2020-21.
HIL (India) Limited has recently exported 25 MT of Malathion Technical 95% to Iran under Government-to-Government initiative for the Locust Control Programme and also exported Agrochemical-fungicide (32 MT) to Latin American region.
