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Continued from page 21 - DDT will not hinder Exports to EU“Let us consider products like coffee, which most farmerskeep in their houses or cotton, even before we think offlowers and fish. How shall we ensure that these escape theDDT residues?” another critic wondered.Others say it is no guarantee that Uganda will meet therequirements in the short run therefore DDT would meanputting the stability of the export industry in balance.According to WHO, Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) forDDT in food products intended for human or animalconsumption in the EU usually range from five to ten timeslower than equivalent levels for other countries like Japanand the US.This means that to maintain the market for Ugandanagricultural products there, Uganda should meet the muchmore stringent EU standards.Ten sub-Saharan countries including South Africa arecurrently using DDT, according to WHO.☻☻☻☻☻☻Natural Pyrethrum the BestAlternative to DDTLeonard Bantura, UKSeptember 28, 2005Daily MonitorWhilst much emphasis in Uganda is being place on theprovision of insect treated nets, it would be much better tolook at a fully integrated mosquito control programmeinvolving: treatment of mosquito breeding sites withlarvicides; space spraying of urban areas with safe, buteffective, natural insecticides; residual spraying of houses;treatment of mosquito nets; provision of safe, natural, insectrepellants.In the context of space spraying, natural synergisedpyrethrum, together with the ultra safe pyrethroidspermethrin, can play a very useful role, as it is extremelyactive against adult mosquitoes.Similarly, the natural insect repellant for the application tothe human body is based on natural pyrethrins, which areconsidered to much safer than products containing DEET.Raw MaterialIn Uganda, we have Chrysanthemum cinerariaefoliumtanacetum from which pyrethrum is extracted.This can be utilized in the formulation of space sprays; forinclusion in insect repellants. The product needs to berefined, as the waxes and taraxasterol irritants have to beremoved.It makes good commercial sense to utilize Ugandanpyrethrum in malaria control campaigns, sine it is not onlyrelieving the strain on the health services, the disablementof family members through illness, but also providing muchneeded income for the farmer.AdvantagesThese are the true facts and advantages of naturalpyrethrum and its products:• Pyrethrum products rapidly knock down and killtargeted pests and have a powerful ability to flushcrawling insects such as cockroaches, fleas, bed bugs,lice, ticks, mites, etc. from their hiding places.• Environmentally, pyrethrum products biodegraderapidly after application and leave no residual depositsdue to sunlight, which causes a rapid breakdown of thepyrethrins. For this reason insect resistance to naturalpyrethrum formulations have been insignificant.• Pyrethrum insecticidal properties are usually enhancedby the addition of a synergist piperony butoxide. Theresulting synergy allows substantially reducedinsecticide concentration and application rates.Pesticide exposure and cost therefore is minimizedwithout adversely affecting efficacy.• The insecticidal constituents of pyrethrum are unstableto light and air and so have virtually no residual effect.• Pyrethrum and synthetic pyrethroids being very quickacting insecticides are of considerable value in theimmediate alleviation of biting nuisance frommosquitoes.• Pyrethroid insecticides from natural pyrethrins tophotostable analogues represent important weaponsagainst insects/pests of both economic and medicalimportance.• Natural pyrethrum insecticide is characterized by anegative temperature coefficient, knock down andkilling activity resulting from action against the sodiumchannels of the peripheral and central nervous systemof insects, cockroaches, fleas, bedbugs, lice, ticks,mites and others. The improved safety in use,biodegradability in the environment resulting into lessdetrimental effects on non-target organisms makenatural pyrethrum use pleasant for most people andnations.• Pyrethrum is locally grown in Uganda.The writer is a medical doctor and CountryRespresentative of Agropharm Ltd. Church Road, Penn,High Wycombe, United Kingdom☻☻☻☻☻☻-22- Traditional African Clinic July/August 2007
Cheap anti-Malaria DrugComing to AfricaLeonard Bantura, UKDaily MonitorJuly 21, 2007European medical authorities have approved modalitiesfor ensuring that a new, low-cost anti-malarial drug isfast-tracked and delivered to African countries includingUganda to curb the country’s number one killer as soonas possible.The drug, dubbed Eurartesim, belongs to the ArtemisininbasedCombination Therapies (ACTs) and is acombination of dihydroartemisinin (DHA) andpiperaquine, a combination that has been proven to clearthe malaria parasites from the body in just three days.Save the Children a British charity said in a press releaseThursday that the new drug had achieved orphan status inEurope at the 8 th meeting of the Committee for OrphanMedical Products of the European Agency for theEvaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) that tookplace late last month. The granting of the “orphan drug”status is designed to encourage the development of drugsthat are necessary but would be prohibitivelyexpensive/un-profitable to develop under normalcircumstances.Mr. Marco Corsi, the medical director of Sigma TauIndustrie Farmaceutiche Reunite S.p.A. (Italy), which isdeveloping the drug, said the achievement could allow aquicker submission to the health authorities in endemiccountries.“Therefore, this drug is likely to get onto national antimalarialdrug policies much quicker. This is very goodnews for sub-Saharan Africa but more so for Ugandabecause this drug is administered once a day for threedays and an adult dose is likely to cost less than one USdollar,” said Dr. Corsi.Dr. Ambrose Talisuna, field coordinator of the AfricanArtekin Malarial Trial that compared Eurartesim toCoartem said: “Any new, cheap and easy to administeranti-malarial drug is indeed good news.” He said recentassessments confirm the persistence of endemic malariawith an estimated 400 million cases and 1.5-2.7 milliondeaths per year. In sub-Saharan Africa alone,plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria,is responsible for approximately 220 million cases andone million deaths per year, 75 per cent of them beingchildren under 5 years old.According to the press release, Eurartesim was firstdeveloped in China. A clinical developmentprogramme was agreed between HollykinPharmaceutical and Guangzhou University (China),The University of Oxford in the UK, the Medicines forMalaria Venture (MMV), and Sigma-Tau IndustrieFarmaceutiche Riunite SpA to support the internationalregistration of the drug.The drug is said to have a simpler dosing scheme thanCoartem, which experts say will aid better complianceto avoid the development of resistance.☻☻☻☻☻☻TZ to Get Cheaper MalariaDrugReuters, LondonDaily MonitorJuly 23, 2007Former US President Bill Clinton is launching aprogramme to make subsidized malaria drugs availablein Tanzania in a test scheme that could serve as ablueprint for Africa s a whole.The project, that was expected to be announced later onSunday in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, will make lifesavingartemisinin combination therapy (ACT) drugsavailable at 90 per cent less than the current marketprice to a national drug wholesaler, which will thendistribute them to rural shops.Malaria caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes,kills up to 3 million people a year world-wide andmakes 300 million seriously ill.Ninety percent of deaths are in Africa south of theSahara, mostly among young children.Many of those lives could be saved with modern ACTdrugs, which are far more effective than oldertreatments such as chloroquine.But a price of up to $8 to $10 per treatment puts themout of reach for many people. Although drugmakersincluding Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis SA havereduced the cost of ACT medicines to around $1 whenthey are used in the public sector, the majority ofAfricans buy their medicine privately.In the case of Tanzania, around half of patients withmalaria seek treatment through private drug shopsinstead of public health facilities, and most are unableto afford the ACT drugs.Continued on page 24-23- Traditional African Clinic July/August 2007
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