Afrigather RUNDU – About ten kilometres on the jap outskirts of Rundu is the Mayana village, an space characterised by flood plains. In reality, Mayana means flood plains within the native dialect and is called after the low-lying floor surrounded by water.
“We now have numerous water our bodies down right here and mosquitoes breed in every single place,” explains Johannes Lipayi, the AFRO 2 Malaria challenge coordinator for Mayana and Sikondo villages, located within the Kavango East and West areas.
The village is in one in every of 5 districts among the many 5 areas chosen to take part in malaria instances discount examine due to the excessive variety of malaria instances and deaths in these areas. The opposite districts are in Omusati, Oshikoto, Ohangwena, and Kavango West. The examine was a part of the World Well being Group’s (WHO) steady efforts to assist Namibia in its combat towards malaria.
This three-year pilot challenge was carried out in 2018 with the intention to scale back malaria transmission by way of larviciding whereas additionally utilizing environmentally pleasant chemical compounds.
“We had been attempting to see if the water our bodies the place mosquitoes are breeding if handled with a organic agent would contribute to lowering the mosquitoes transmitting malaria,” explains Dr Florence Soroses, the Malaria Nationwide Mission Coordinator with the WHO.
“Earlier than the implementation of the challenge on this village we had numerous malaria instances and deaths. However as quickly as this system began the instances began to lower,” defined Lipayi.
The group has all the time been open to the initiative. When phrase of the challenge unfold, the group gathered in massive numbers on the home of the headman to investigate how they could possibly be concerned, defined Lipayi.
“After we examine this village to others the place this challenge has not been carried out you possibly can inform the distinction,”mentioned Lipayi.
In 2020, 13,633 malaria instances had been recorded in Namibia. Out of this quantity, 40 folks died from malaria. In 2021, 13,740 malaria instances had been recorded within the nation. The variety of deaths decreased to fifteen.
“Even once we had been reporting the info, we may see a lower in malaria instances in comparison with earlier years earlier than the challenge was carried out,” mentioned Lipayi. In the meantime, Markus Kamburu is a 42-year-old father of 5 youngsters. For the previous three years, Kamburu was employed as a Area Operator on the malaria challenge in Mayana village. His work schedule began as early as 6 within the morning, and generally, he would want to work evening shifts relying on the labour.
Kamburu’s duties included larval habitat mapping, larviciding in addition to organising the CDC mild traps for grownup mosquito assortment. As well as, Kamburu and two different teammates additionally had the accountability of conducting larval surveys, a course of which incorporates the monitoring of mosquito larvae exercise and density within the breeding websites. They began by counting the variety of households within the village and located the village has 3,365 homes. Out of those 20 homes had been randomly chosen to be a part of the examine. The crew recognized 65 breeding websites. These breeding websites maintain water through the wet season which might be anyplace between December and Might. Some breeding websites have water all year long.
“These are the breeding websites that we all the time monitor to see if there are some larvae. If there are larvae, we larvicide. On the very starting, nevertheless, we began with the mapping course of after which we did the larviciding for the breeding website which we recognized if there have been some larvae there,” defined Kamburu.
Kamburu says he had no prior data of figuring out larvae and neither did he have any technical data of malaria. He was appointed by the village headman in 2018 when the challenge began.
“The chemical compounds we use for larviciding had been very spectacular as a result of once we use them, we anticipate finding larvae in two to 3 days once we get again. We’ll discover the larvae floating already. We had been additionally amassing grownup mosquitoes. Even whereas the mosquitoes are adults, we nonetheless acquire some. So, this course of was actually preventing the mosquitoes in any respect the phases of their lives and subsequently lowering malaria,” defined Kamburu.
Along with larviciding, Kamburu says the crew additionally makes use of the prokopack aspirators, which operates as a vacuum to gather outside resting grownup mosquitoes. This course of is often performed within the early morning hours. For indoor resting mosquitoes, they use the CDC mild lure to catch the grownup mosquitoes in a single day.
“These are the strategies we use to gather the mosquitoes within the village,” he defined. After amassing the info, the crew information and sends samples for additional evaluation to their supervisor, Dr Soroses in Windhoek. “We now have an organised system that we use to report and ship the info to Dr Soroses,” defined Lipayi.
The WHO injected N$1 million in the direction of the challenge. In Might, the funding for the challenge formally got here to an finish, with the group and the WHO hailing it as successful. The Nation Consultant, Dr Charles Sagoe-Moses mentioned the distinction the challenge has made locally reveals that “the organic agent used works in malaria management”.
Joseph Mbamba says the data and expertise he has gained from the challenge are invaluable. “I’m going out locally to lift consciousness on malaria. I additionally take the tools to exhibit how we do our work,” he added. The challenge additionally helped him financially as a result of he was capable of pay for his son’s greater training.
“The WHO invested lots in these folks. My hope is that the Ministry of Well being and Social Companies or the personal sector will take over the challenge in order that their data won’t be wasted,” mentioned Lipayi. He additionally fears that malaria instances will improve once more.
“These folks know the strategies which can be utilized in malaria management, and they’re very effectively knowledgeable about that. They attended annual workshops and coaching and now it’s as much as the federal government to have a look at their plight and take over,” mentioned Lipayi. Echoing comparable sentiments, the headman of Mayana village, Berthold Shinimbo referred to as for investments within the malaria challenge. “This can allow the group to take over. As you possibly can see, now we have a excessive unemployment price,” mentioned Shinimbo. The AFRO 2 challenge was carried out with the objective to strengthen nationwide capabilities for the implementation and scaling up of evidence-based, modern, diversified and environmentally pleasant malaria vector management interventions with a specific give attention to winter larviciding as an extra vector management software to attain malaria elimination by 2022. The challenge was additionally carried out in Botswana and Eswatini.
