HIL (India) supplies 20.60MT DDT to South Africa for Malaria control program
21 July 2020, New Delhi: HIL (India) Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has supplied 20.60 Metric tonne of DDT 75 % WP to South Africa for their Malaria control program yesterday.
Read: Bayer partners with Prospera Technologies Inc. for digital farming solution
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. In addition, the company is also supplying the product to many South African countries.
The Department of Health, South Africa shall be utilising DDT in three province adjoining Mozambique. The region is highly affected with Malaria and it has reported maximum morbidity because of the disease in recent years.
Read: Sale of DAP fertilizer in India up by 108% compared to last year
Malaria and Public Health
Malaria continues to be one of the major public health problems gobally. In 2018, an estimated 228 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide. Most malaria cases and deaths (93%) are 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 i.e. 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. It is being widely used by Southern African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique etc. and India.
The Company is 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; also exported Agrochemical-fungicide (32 MT) to Latin American region.
Photo credit: Patrick Feller on Visualhunt.com / CC BY