By Yunus S Saliu
Following the reports of an invasion of biting midges and small flies in the city of Banjul, the Minister of Health has Thursday evening launched an indoor residual spraying and fogging of the whole Banjul City to ensure the safety and welfare of every resident and visitor.
Addressing residents of the city, the Honorable Minister of Health Dr Amadou Lamin Samateh said his Ministry is conducting mass spraying and fogging exercise in Banjul City “in order to ensure the safety and welfare of our dear brothers and sisters are address adequately.”
Combating the invasion of the biting midges and small flies in the city, the Minister announced that “3 fogging machines will be used for this exercise for the outdoor spraying whilst 25 Knapsack/Kent sprayers will be used for the indoor spraying.” Added that, “in order to ensure sustainability, my Ministry have trained over 20 spray operators/volunteers all whom are residents of Banjul, they will be going from house to house spraying.”
The Honorable Minister quickly thanked Seattle Rotary Service Foundation, Gates Foundation, Malaria Partners International and Rotarians Against Malaria-Global for “providing these two machines to us, as a Ministry and by extension to the Gambian people, we will always remain grateful to Rotary International.”
Dr Samateh noted that malaria is being fought in all fronts, from the provision of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) to the Spraying of Houses with insecticides. And launching this exercise, he said his Ministry will now embark on outdoor fogging/spraying of mosquitoes and other insects in order to the vector population.
According to the Health Minister explanation, the vehicle-mounted cold foggers are used for outdoor space treatments require no residual spray deposit. The micron-air AU9000 is a vehicle-mounted cold fogging machine developed specifically for the control of adult mosquitoes, flies and similar pests using both conventional and water-based ULV insecticides. The AU9000 provides excellent control of spray droplet size and flow rate of insecticide, whilst being easy to operate and maintain.
He added that these fogging machines are devices that emit a dense vapour that appear like smoke of fog that will kill mosquitoes and other pest of medical importance.
“As the world grapples with Covid-19, the launching of these two Cold Thermal Fogging Machines highlights the importance of maintaining a robust health system in order to control existing diseases like malaria, alongside emerging ones,” he stated.
He went on that, in The Gambia, since 2004, the sustained investments by the Global Fund and other donors have driven malaria cases and deaths to historically low levels resulting to a general decline in malaria incidence in the country by 50%.
More so, he disclosed, admissions due to malaria in hospitals and health facilities, dropped by 74% and deaths attributed to malaria have dropped by 90%. Furthermore, malaria parasite prevalence dropped from 4.0% in 2011 to 0.2% in 2014 and significantly declined even further to 0.1% in 2017.
Dilating further on Coronavirus, he said Covid-19 is straining national health systems and challenging families, communities and countries so “the current Covid-19 outbreak underscores the critical importance of having strong surveillance and health care systems to effectively address existing infectious diseases like malaria and new and emerging ones like Covid-19.
Omar BS Touray, Deputy Mayor of Banjul highlighted on the importance of the in and out spraying to eradicate malaria in the city of Banjul.
He noted that of recent, different flies discovered in the city which made the mass spraying fogging exercise timely.
On behalf of the Mayor of Banjul, he appealed to the Ministry to help conduct the exercise in the city every quarter instead once in a year, as the city experiencing large quantity of mosquitoes year round particularly during the rainy season.
He therefore thanked the Honorable Minister of Health who had led the spraying activities and also the Ministry itself for training the volunteers for the exercise which expected to last four days.
The Deputy Mayor noted that the volunteers who are all residents of the city know every nook and cranny of Banjul very well, which will make the exercise to be a successful and effective one.
In extension he thanked the Malaria control unit, public health, volunteers from Red Cross Banjul and Banjul Community Development and among others.