Malaria Control Programme inspects Zoomlion’s mapped mosquito breeding sites

The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) Manager, Dr. Keziah Malm has toured some districts in the Eastern and Central region to inspect on-going nationwide mapping of mosquito breeding sites being undertaken by the vector control unit of Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

The mapping of the mosquito breeding sites across the country is being done by the use of smart devices aided by an application software to digitally record the GPS coordinates of specific mosquito breeding sites for onward application of biolarvicide to kill mosquitoes.

Dr. Keziah Malm inspected the progress of work at various mapped mosquito breeding sites where she interacted with the spraying gangs and their team leaders to test their knowledge after an intensive training was organized for them to upgrade their skills in identifying mosquito larvae that transmit the deadly malaria disease.

She met some of the Environmental Health Officers in the districts and discussed environmental sanitation management approach to the exercise to help educate community members on good sanitary practices which will minimize breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Dr. Malm expressed her total satisfaction on the progress of work as she was optimistic that the multifaceted approach being executed towards reducing mosquito population such as the in-door residual spraying, the use of long lasting insecticide nets and the larviciding exercise across the country will reduce mosquito population.

She bemoaned some human activities that contributes to mosquito breeding sites and urged the public to desist from activities that create ditches for water to collect which subsequently becomes a breeding site for mosquitoes.

A medical Entomologist with the NMCP, Madam Otubea Owusu Akrofi touted the larviciding exercise and described it as “an effective means of getting the mosquito at source before it develops into an adult mosquito”.

She said the electronic means of mapping the mosquito breeding sites will help generate a map of the country indicating various points of mosquito breeding sites for planning to execute effective larval source management.