27 Aug 2019

Acting head of Bobirwa District Health Management Team (DHMT), Dr Enock Mulomba says preparations are underway for the indoor residue spray (IRS) to eliminate malaria causing mosquito in 13 villages in Bobirwa Sub-district. 

Updating Bobirwa Sub-district councillors on August 27, Dr Mulomba said the exercise was expected to commence in October and completed in November. He said they would use actellic insecticide and not DDT which was used in the previous years.

In justifying the use of actellic, the acting Bobirwa DHMT head said the insecticide had been used effectively in East Africa. 

DHMT has been hard at work procuring essential materials for IRS whilst simultaneously recruiting personnel for the health and safety exercise.

About 93 spray operators, four health promotion officers, three community mobilisers per village and five environmental officers will be required for the successful execution of IRS.

In recruiting personnel, Dr Mulomba said they had engaged community leaders who worked with the labour office to provide them with suitable candidates. “Recruits are currently undergoing medical checkups. 

Training of supervisors and sprayer operators will be conducted September,” Dr Mulomba said. The spraying exercise targets 27 198 rooms from 11 396 targeted houses, with 15 rooms sprayed per day.

The team has conducted malaria mini-campaigns in the 13 targeted villages, held kgotla meetings and community conversations amongst other sensitisation efforts pre-campaign. 

However, Dr Mulomba cited shortage of transport to reach cattle posts, delayed payments of personnel involved in IRS and procurement challenges as some of the problems they were facing. Ends