By Xinhuanet

JOHANNESBURG-- The World Health Organization (WHO) Roll Back Malaria program will unveil a new malaria control strategy that clearly endorses the use of DDT to control mosquitoes, which carry the often deadly disease, a South African newspaper said on Tuesday.

The UN organization said last week it hoped the unequivocal statement would help more African countries use the pesticide, which is opposed by environmentalists concerned about its ecological effects, reported Business Day.

Between 350 million and 500 million people in more than 100 countries catch malaria each year, according to the WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund in their World Malaria Report 2005.

Although the 2004 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants bans agricultural use of DDT worldwide because of its harmful effects on the environment, it grants exemptions for public health purposes such as killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique are among the countries which use the chemical, but other African countries have encountered difficulties when they announced plans to introduce similar programs, said the newspaper.

Partner organizations such as the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria supported the use of DDT, it said, citing Roll Back Malaria's Executive Secretary Awa Marie Coll-Seck.

"What is clear is that DDT can be used for public purposes, butthis needs to be clarified for countries that want to use it," shesaid.

The South African newspaper also carried an article by Philip Coticelli, a researcher, and Richard Tren, director of the health advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria, who argued mosquito nets alone are insufficient for the prevention of malaria and DDT has been "demonized."

"DDT remains the cheapest and most effective means of combatingmalaria .. Its use in public health programs is limited to spraying tiny amounts of the chemical inside houses," said the article.

In South Africa, DDT was removed from national malaria control strategies in 1996 to "appease environmental interest groups." Cases had increased tenfold by 2000, when the government promptly reintroduced the chemical and watched the malaria burden drop nearly 80 percent, they said.

The WHO office in South Africa was not immediately reached for comment.