Second round of anti-malaria spraying set to start

The Secretary General in the ministry of health, Caroline Kayonga has announced that a fresh round of ant-malaria spraying is due to start in the second week of August. Last year the Minisante conducted the first Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) exercise with the support of the US President’s Malaria Initiative.

The exercise, which took place in August, was carried out in the three districts of Kigali City (Nyarungenge, Kicikiro and Gasabo), with the idea of repeating the campaign in othere parts of the country. Which is exactly what will be done in August, when the districts of Kirehe in Eastern Province and Nyanza in Southern Province will be taken care of.

More than 200,000 households are targeted, covering 36 sectors,191 cells and 1499 imidugudu.

Special attention will be paid to sectors located near wet-lands, rivers like Nyabugogo, Nyabarongo, Kajevuba and lakes, as well as hydro-agriculture projects like rice fields and dams—given that this is exactly where the mosquitoes thrive.

Also, areas with a significant or vulnerable population such as boarding schools, health centers hospitals, military garrisons and prisons will be specifically targeted.

Ms Kayonga also remarked that a total of 866 community health workers will be trained and deployed as spraying operators during the eight-week campaign.

More than 300 local leaders will be involved in the supervision, and graduates in environment health from the Kigali Institute of Health (KHI) will serve as technical coordinators under the overall supervision of health ministry.

The IRS will thereafter be gradually expanded to nine districts, and in the end to the whole of the country.

The spraying campaign comes as a complement the use of insecticide treated nets given free of charge to the most vulnerable such as those living with HIV, pregnant women and children for malaria prevention.

Posted by The Rwanda Focus on Jul 29 2008. Filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.