The U.S. government has changed tack, and USAID officials are now endorsing and funding the use of DDT, the insecticide credited with eliminating malaria in the Western world, as part of the President's Malaria Initiative to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50% in more than a dozen African countries by the end of the decade. DDT was outlawed in the United States more than 30 years ago and is banned in most countries because of a combination of legitimate environmental concerns arising when it used indiscriminately and unsubstantiated fears that it can harm humans. It will be one of about a dozen insecticides deployed in a rotating scheme of indoor residual spraying that compliments other preventive measures, including drug treatments and bed netting treated with insecticide.
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