Elimination &Integrated Vector Management &Mosquitoes Bill Brieger | 30 Mar 2015 05:43 am
Moving toward Malaria Elimination through Integrated Vector Control
As malaria control efforts are scaled up and sustained, we expect a drop in prevalence to the point where Ministries of Health may no longer devote a whole operational unit – a National Malaria Control Program – to the disease. This does not mean that malaria programming stops, otherwise countries would experience a resurgence.
We can learn from countries like Namibia and Rwanda that are on the frontline of malaria elimination efforts. In Namibia, “The National Vector-borne Disease Control Program (NVDCP) at the Namibia Ministry of Health and Social Services effectively controls the spread of malaria with interventions such as spraying dwellings with insecticides, distributing mosquito nets treated with insecticides, using malaria tests that can give accurate results within 15 minutes, and distributing medicines that kill the parasite.”
The NVDCP falls under the Primary Health Care Services Directorate with its five divisions: Epidemiology; Public and Environmental Health Services; Family Planning; Information, Education and Communication (IEC); Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation. Contrary to what one might think, malaria activities are not lost, but are teaming up with international partners like UCSF Global Health Group’s Malaria Elimination Initiative, the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In Rwanda we now have the Malaria and Other Parasitic Diseases Division (MOPDD) within the Rwanda Biomedical Center within the Ministry of Health. Major donors like the US Presidents Malaria Initiative are supporting the MOPDD to achieve Rwanda’s national strategic plan of reaching the pre-elimination stage by 2018.
Even if a country is still highly malaria endemic, it is important to ensure that integrated vector management is taking place so that in the future the country’s malaria efforts will have a strong ‘home base’ to approach elimination. This is why the opportunity presented by upcoming the Second Pan-African Mosquito Control Association is important. According to the organizers …
The 2nd Pan African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) Conference themed, “Emerging mosquito-borne diseases in sub-Saharan Africa” will be held in Dar-es- Salaam, Tanzania, from 6-8th October 2015. The 2nd Annual PAMCA conference will build on the momentum generated following the successful hosting of the 1st PAMCA Annual Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The main objective is to bring professionals, students, research institutions and other stakeholders working in mosquito control and mosquito-borne diseases research together under common agenda to discuss the challenges of emerging and re-emerging mosquito-borne diseases across the African continent. The conference will seek to illuminate this subject of emerging mosquito-borne diseases and develop progressive resolutions that will serve as guidelines to tackling this challenge going forward. The conference will also offer a platform for participants to exchange knowledge and ideas on mosquito control, forge new collaborations and strengthen existing ones.
We hope that colleagues will submit abstracts soonest focusing on the various conference themes:
- Emerging mosquito-borne diseases: new Public Health challenges
- Mosquito resistance to insecticides and population genetics
- Translating research into practice: Linking interventions to mosquito behavior
- Multidisciplinary approaches to tackling mosquito-borne disease
- Mosquito biology & ecology
- Impact of climate change on mosquito control