HIL supplies 20.60 MT of DDT to South Africa for Malaria control programme

New Delhi: HIL (India) Limited, a Miniratna PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, said on Tuesday that the company has supplied 20.60 Metric Tonne of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) 75 percent WP to South Africa for their Malaria control programme on July 20. The Department of Health, South Africa shall be utilising DDT in three provinces adjoining Mozambique. The region is highly affected by Malaria and it has reported maximum morbidity and mortality due to the disease in recent years.

Malaria continues to be one of the major public health problems globally. In 2018, an estimated 228 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and most malaria cases and deaths (93 percent) were reported from the African Region. In the South-East Asia region, India accounts for the majority of cases and deaths from Malaria. Spraying of insecticides inside human habitats i.e. Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) has proven to be an effective mosquito control tool. World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends DDT as one of the efficient IRS chemicals 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 the process of supplying DDT 75 percent 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 the Latin American region.

HIL (India) is the sole manufacturer of DDT globally. The company was incorporated in the year 1954 to manufacture and supply DDT to the government's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the 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.

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