The Ghana Health Service (GHS) under the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) is collaborating with its partners to sensitise communities in the Tema Metropolis to roll out this year’s vector control activities (Larval Source Management).
Larval Source Management is the management of aquatic habitats (stagnant water bodies) that serve as potential mosquitoes breeding ground to prevent the completion of the mosquito’s life cycle.
This involves the introduction of an agent, which selectively kills only the larva to drastically reduce the mosquito population. The agent is however harmless to other living things.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times about the project yesterday, Malaria
Focal Person for Tema Metropolis, Madam Elizabeth Appiah Bonnah, said the annual project started in September will run till December 2021 and it is being implemented by personnel from GHS, Zoomlion and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly(TMA).
“It involves sensitising community members about the project,
the mapping of breeding sites(water bodies) dipping for larvae and the application of larvicide,” she said.
She said malaria is a deadly disease that is life threatening to everyone. “It is transmitted to human beings through the bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito carrying the parasite,” she said.
Records from the GHS indicate that between January and March 2020, 54 people died from malaria in Ghana. Of the number 16 were children under five years.
In the same period, 1 million people tested positive for malaria in various health facilities in the country.
Madam Bonnah noted that
following the mapping of breeding sites in the country in 2019, 34 sites within the Tema Metropolis were identified and treated last year. The sites which included irrigation channels,ponds, rice fields,small puddles, tyre tracks and abandoned lorry tyres were located in Tema New Town, communities 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 11, 12, the light and heavy industrial areas.
The Environmental Health Officer of TMA, Mr Wisdom Aditsey, said community trained spray operatives will undertake the spraying of identified stagnant water bodies with vectolex, which is environmentally friendly, meaning it will only kill the larvae but it is safe for both human and animals and will not cause any harm.
Mr Aditsey urged Assembly members, traditional rulers and residents to support the exercise to make it successful.
He advised residents to help rid the communities of receptacles that serve as mosquito breeding grounds.
Tema Metropolitan Manager for Zoomlion, Mr Emmanuel T. Anum, said the exercise would be extended to other assemblies to ensure effective control of the mosquito population and reduction of malaria cases.
FROM GODFRED BLAY GIBBAH, TEMA
