Cuban company's sales of larvicides to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa continue despite U.N. concern, Miami Herald reports

The Cuban state-owned company Labiofam "is increasing sales of its mosquito larvicides to fight malaria in Africa, despite cautions by U.N. experts that such products have limited use and are not the most cost-effective method of attacking the disease," the Miami Herald reports. The company's website "says its larvicide Griselesf is used in anti-malaria programs in Ghana, Angola, Gambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, and Zambia," according to the newspaper.

However, a WHO report released in April "cautioned about the use of larvicides to control malaria in sub-Saharan Africa," the newspaper writes, adding that the report recommended larvicides be used "only in areas where the breeding sites are few, fixed and findable," which is uncommon in Africa, and that there are more cost-effective ways of fighting malaria. According to the newspaper, "Malaria experts in Africa prompted WHO to issue its report because of concerns that Cuba's growing larvicide sales in the region are diverting funds away from better malaria controls, said one U.N. official in Geneva." The Miami Herald mentions a Financial Times article from April 29 that "noted that the growing Cuban sales of larvicides in sub-Sahara Africa was causing concern in the region" (Tamayo, 7/2).