In other words, there will be tight intergovernmental controls. The prospects are hardly more encouraging than for an AIDS vaccine. For one thing, natural immunity to the disease is very poor. New drugs are desperately needed. The mainstay of treatment, chloroquine, is now virtually useless against P. falciparum except in a small area that includes Mexico, Central America, and part of the Middle East.
Few drugs are on the horizon.
The risk and regulatory climate is such that private investment in research and development can only be justified when large profit margins are expected in the event of success. It is stated that mosquito resistance was the reason for discontinuing or deemphasizing vector control. The study in question used blood samples of 32,286 women obtained in 1989 or 1990 as part of the Nurses' Health Study. DDT had been banned for nearly 20 years in the U.S. by the time the blood samples for the above study had been taken. A multi-center European study showed a statistically significant trend for lower DDE levels in adipose tissue in breast cancer patients.