Indoor Residual Spraying campaign beats target

The Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) campaign which was carried out from August 25 to October 18 was a success. This was revealed Thursday by the Center for Infection Control (CIDC) during an evaluation meeting with stakeholders at Hotel la Pallise, Nyandungu. According to CIDC, the exercise which was carried out in five districts of the country was a success with a 94 percent outcome against the expected 85 percent. “The aim of the meeting is to evaluate the indoor spraying campaign which was aimed at fighting mosquitoes that cause malaria and to see the way forward for the next campaigns,” said Emmanuel Hakizimana, CIDC Program Director. Hakizimana explained that the reasons for this year’s success as compared to last year was because they evaluated last year’s challenges and planned for how they could improve results. He also added that good coordination and public awareness were some of the reasons for the campaign’s success. “We raised awareness through the media and local leaders. This helped us a great deal,” Hakizimana explained. The districts covered included Nyarugenge, Gasabo and Kicukiro in Kigali city, Nyanza in the Southern Province and Kirehe in Eastern province. Accordingly, a total of 189,756 houses in the five districts underwent the exercise while 11,789 were not. Asked why the exercise covered only five districts, Hakizimana said that this was because those selected are surrounded by water bodies and thus had a greater malaria risk. He, however, said that if they get the required funds, four more districts will be included in the next campaign. Hakizimana also reminded people in areas where this exercise has not reached, to continue using the other malarial control methods such as bush clearing, sleeping under treated mosquito nets and avoiding stagnant water around their homes. The short term objective of Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) is to contribute to the reduction of up to 50 per cent of malaria by 2010 using the Lambda Cyahalothrin insecticide. Ends