NMCP’s Deputy Director interviews an IRS beneficiary for quality assurance of the spray campaign.
The PMI AIRS Project Strengthens Capacity in IRS through Trainings and Collaboration
The President’s Malaria Initiative Africa Indoor Residual Spraying (PMI AIRS) Project protects millions of people in Africa by spraying insecticide on the indoor walls and ceilings, the main resting places of mosquitoes. IRS kills mosquitoes when they come into contact with insecticide-treated surfaces. In Madagascar, where the entire population is at risk of contracting malaria, the PMI AIRS Project is building the capacity of the government to deliver high-quality spraying through trainings and collaborative meetings with the Malaria Control Directorate (DLP), the Regional Directorates of Health, and the District Public Health Services, and collaborating with traditional community leaders and village chiefs.
Before 2016 spray operations began, four members of the DLP team participated in a hands-on training on the use of new spray pumps. The DLP team also participated in the joint planning of the campaign, various spray operations and supervisory trainings, workshops and advocacy sessions.
During the month long campaign, DLP and the PMI AIRS Project teamed up to monitor IRS activities. Every day each district was supervised by at least one team. Using a mobile phone application to facilitate standardized supervision, a member of the supervisory team completed and submitted their forms to a cloud-based open-source platform. This data was then sent via email to all supervisory staff to allow them to take corrective measures the following morning during spray team preparation. At the end of each day, a “daily debriefing” was organized with the supervision team to analyze the results of the day as well as the strengths and areas for improvement.
Working together, the PMI AIRS Project and DLP protected 1,257,301 people against malaria during the 2016 campaign with a coverage rate of 93.5% for the five districts, exceeding the expected target of 85% coverage.
The PMI AIRS Project continues to work with the DLP to strengthen its entomological monitoring, environmental compliance, mobilization, spray techniques, training, logistics management, supervision and field operations’ coordination for their non-PMI funded IRS campaigns. The collaboration between the DLP and the PMI AIRS Project is bringing a synergy in the strategy for malaria control and elimination in Madagascar.
This story was taken from www.africairs.net.