Maravi

MoH to conduct aerial mosquito spraying

MoH to conduct aerial mosquito spraying
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Thu 19 May 2011, 04:01 CAT

THE Ministry of Health says it will be conducting aerial mosquito spraying in Lusaka, Chongwe and Kafue using environmentally friendly larvicides which are mosquito larvae specific and not harmful to humans and any other species.

Spokesperson Dr Kamoto Mbewe said the public should therefore not be alarmed when they see small planes carrying out the spraying activity in selected areas.

Dr Mbewe said the exercise would soon be extended to other parts of the country especially in Luapula, Eastern and Northern provinces where malaria incidence was highest.

He said malaria was endemic in all the nine provinces of Zambia with 90-100 per cent of the population at risk.

“Transmission occurs throughout the year with the peak during the rainy season. Northern, Luapula and Eastern provinces have the highest annual incidence of malaria,” he said.

Dr Mbewe said the Zambian government had identified malaria control as one of its main public health priorities and in view of this position, the government through the National Malaria Control Centre (NMCC), had developed a detailed National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP), aimed at significantly scaling up malaria control interventions towards achievement of the national vision of ‘a malaria a free Zambia’.

He said to support this strategy, the governments of Zambia and Cuba had signed and established an Intergovernmental Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical for the period 2009 - 2011, in which the Cuban government was to assist Zambia in malaria control through larviciding using larvicides.

“In view of this a team of experts from Cuba arrived in the country in 2010 to work with Zambian experts in the Ministry of Health to integrate and scale up the Larval Source Management as one of the strategies in the control of malaria to complement the existing interventions such as long lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LITNs) and Indoor residual spraying (IRS),” he said.

Dr Mbewe said for several years, it had long been believed that the best way to interrupt malaria transmission was to target adult female mosquitoes with insecticides.

“But evidence shows that those malaria control programmes have ignored fundamental biological difference between mosquito adults and the immature stages. Adults are highly mobile flying insects that can readily detect and avoid intervention measures. Conversely, immature stages are confined within small aquatic habitats and cannot escape control measures,” said Dr Mbewe.

“It’s for this reason that the Ministry of Health has approved Larval control using environmentally friendly larvicides as an alternative and effective way for malaria control if complemented with adult control interventions.

Larviciding is a general term for killing immature mosquitoes by applying agents, collectively called larvicides, to control mosquito larvae and/or pupae.”

Labels: KAMOTO MBEWE, MALARIA, MINISTRY OF HEALTH

posted by MrK @ 1:16 PM