Govt completes indoor residual spraying
GOVERNMENT has completed indoor residual spraying (IRS) in high-risk areas bordering Zimbabwe and Mozambique to curb malaria-related deaths.
Ministry of Health and Child Care national malaria programme manager Dr Joseph Mberi said Government could only do so much to contain malaria prevalence in Manicaland Province due to the interaction between the two countries.
He said Mozambique had not been able to fully implement malaria control programmes which has left the burden on the Zimbabwean Government to contain transmission of the deadly disease.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health, 21 249 suspected cases of malaria have been reported in the province, of which 2 461 tested positive at the beginning of the programme in October.
The figures show that there has since been a 9,5 percent decline in the number of suspected cases in November to 16 419.
About 2 227 of these cases tested positive for malaria.
Provincial epidemiology and disease control officer Dr Munyaradzi Mukuzungahe said this years’ malaria programme was not only targeting controlling or managing malaria, but was focused on completely eliminating the disease by 2030.
“The province has been divided into three clusters where we started with Chimanimani and now in Mutare and the first cluster is expected to be completed on December 17. In the second cluster, we have completed Chipinge and Makoniwe, and we are now in Buhera. We expect to finish on 19 December. Then the last cluster, we started a bit late, part of Nyanga and Mutasa have been sprayed and they are expected to be completed by 23 December,” he said.
He said the ministry had been facing challenges with people who resisted the IRS programme due to misconceptions about the use of some of the chemicals used, especially DDT.
“Anopheles fenestus is a dangerous mosquito vector that is prevalent in Mozambique and we have been trying to annihilate it through the use of DDT.
“We have what is called insecticide resistant management plan where we routinely rotate a number of chemicals and after discovering of this breed, we found out that DDT has been effective.
“The chemical goes as far as nine to 12 months on the wall, killing any vector that gets contact with it. We will continue with this exercise until December 23,” he said.