The spray officers in full protective gear
By Mary Makhiringa, MANA
Balaka District Council, in conjunction with World Vision International, on Monday launched the 2021 Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), with a call to communities to embrace the intervention aimed at ending the spread of deadly malaria.
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Balaka, together with three other districts of Mangochi, Nkhata Bay and Nkhotatoka, are piloting the IRS implementation and speaking during the launch, which started with a solidarity march from the District Commissioner’s Office to Balaka Stadium, Council chairperson Councilor Patrick Botomani, called for communities to accept and embrace the interventions as it has proved to work following the malaria cases trend this year.
“We are aware that up to now there are still some people who doubt the effectiveness of this intervention,” he said. “Let me report to you that with indoor residual spraying we have managed to reduce malaria cases by 23%.
“It is our aim and hope that we do more and better this year as we have incorporated different actors at district level such as religious, traditional leaders, and politicians; all these to see the success of the intervention,” Botomani said.
On his part, Biziweck Mwale — chief of party for global funds grants on malaria and HIV at World Vision — said it is their organisation’s hope that by the end of the 36 days of the campaign they will protect 550,000 people from malaria.
“We opted for the launch of IRS in Balaka and the other districts due to the high malaria prevalence rate in these districts.
“Our hope is that once we register success in this campaign, the country can look at the results and decide whether it is possible to roll it out to the rest of the districts,” he said.
Traditional Authority (TA) Chanthunya, who is the chairperson of the Chiefs Council, said they will always see to it that their subordinates accept the intervention.
“We always work hand in hand with the District Council in this program,” said the TA. “So far we have set by-laws, for instance, anyone denying spray operators access to their homes need to be summoned and fined.”
It is expected that Balaka will use Fuodora Fusion which is said to be environmentally friendly, as it is odorless and does not leave any stains when applied.
In June, President Lazarus Chakwera officially launched a campaign dubbed ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ in Machinga District with a call to different partners to support government in ending malaria by 2030 and asked the private sector, traditional leaders, religious leaders and communities at large to play their roles in eliminating malaria.
President Chakwera had said malaria has affected thousands of pregnant women and children in the country to the extent that over 2,000 people die every year.
“Malaria kills six people every day, as such, we need collaboration so that we achieve a zero malaria nation,” he had said. “When I went in office 10 months ago, I promised to launch this campaign and I am glad that we have made it possible.
“But the launch itself is not enough; we have to go down and root out malaria in our communities.”
The Malawi leader further said malaria has badly affected the health sector such that a lot of money is invested in malaria alone, which “has put pressure on our health facilities and health workers”.
Malaria threat is through mosquitoes
“Once we defeat malaria, our health workers will have 40% less work and the money that is allocated to malaria will be allocated to other development activities,” he said, while urging people to follow all prescribed preventative measures of controlling malaria and ignore misconceptions that fuel the spread of malaria.
“Some people say sleeping in a mosquito net brings out bedbugs, which is not true. So, let us use the mosquito nets correctly so that we can defeat malaria.
“This year, my government will distribute over 9 million mosquito nets, which signifies the commitment of my government to fight malaria.”
