Waste management expert and a member of the Jospong Group of Companies in collaboration with the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Services and the Noguchi Memorial Centre have begun extensive training of key malaria sector players across the country towards the implementation of a National Malaria Control Program which focuses mainly on killing the larvae of mosquitos.
This is a strategic effort by key players to reduce if not completely eradicate mosquito breeding in Ghana.
In the opening remarks, Mr. Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey, Social and Behaviour Change Communications Specialist of the National Malaria Control Program of the Ghana Health Service said apart from other interventions undertaken by government to curb the malaria menace ,the ministry’s Malaria Control Program together with it’s key partners such as Zoomlion were going to implement a nationwide larvaeciding programme to drastically reduce the spread of mosquitos.
The Vector Control Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Rev. Ebenezer Addae underscored the need for the collaboration to implement the programme since malaria is one of the most dangerous diseases in the Sub-Saharan Africa that is taking so many lives on daily basis.
He said, the program selected key players in the sector such as Zoomlion District/Municipal Managers, District/ Municipal Environmental Health Officers, District/Municipal Malaria Focal Persons, NAMCOP Spraying Gang Leaders and Community Sprayers to train them on the kinds of mosquitos, how to map for spraying and some safety measures and technicalities in the field of larvaeciding and mosquito control as a whole.
He explained that the process of how to map for the actual implementation of the program in the districts and communities safely is also thought thoroughly in these trainings.
Rev. Addae indicated that this particular training which took place in Accra was the first of its kind that the company was going to replicate in all the regions in order for the exercise to be successful.
The Consultant Dr. Silas Majambere said the world is becoming aware that larvaeciding is one if the best approaches to reduce mosquito breeding especially in Africa.
He said in as much as the other interventions such as the distribution and usage of treated bed nets, diagnosis and treatment as well as the discovery of effective medicines to treat, larvaeciding was still seen as the best control measure a government would want to undertake.
Dr. Majambere a Burundian is the the Director of Scientific Operations at the Pan-African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA)
By : Dickson Boadi
