In 2007, nearly 30,800 households were sprayed, representing more than 99 percent of the 31,000 households approached by the spray teams in the district, and almost 276,000 people were protected.

Children of Keur Aly Samba village stand with their village chief, Momath Cissé. PMI’s support of IRS helps protect them from malaria, which caused the deaths of seven children in 2006. Source: Robert Perry/CDC

“In 2006, during the rainy season, we lost seven children from malaria,” said Momath Cissé, chief of the village of Keur Aly Samba. “But after the people sprayed our houses last year, not one child died during the rains.” The village of roughly 1,600 people is located in the district of Nioro du Rip, one of the three districts where PMI is supporting IRS for the prevention of malaria. In 2007, nearly 30,800 households were sprayed, representing more than 99 percent of the 31,000 households approached by the spray teams in the district, and almost 276,000 people were protected.

Keur Aly Samba also benefits from a community health hut supported by PMI, where a community health worker provides treatment for malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhea, and tuberculosis; a birth attendant helps with antenatal care and the delivery of babies. Severe malaria cases have to be referred to the closest health post, which requires the health committee and the villagers to pay for transportation and medications. Keur Aly Samba’s community health worker noted that in 2006, “We had to send more than 20 children to the health post” for treatment of severe malaria, but in 2007, “Only a handful had to be referred.”