AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control completes 2019 indoor residual spraying campaign

The AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control Limited (AGAMAL) has successfully completed its active Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) operations for the year 2019 in 16 Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana.

The assemblies include Obuasi Municipal and Obuasi East District, both in the Ashanti Region and Kasena Nankana West, Bulsa North and Bulsa West in the Upper East Region as well as all the 11 Municipal and District Assemblies in the Upper West Region.

This was said in a statement jointly issued by Mr Samuel Asiedu, Programme Director of AGAMAL and Ms Alberta Gordon-Bosomtwe, Manager of Social and Behavioral Change Communications.

According to the statement copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, the exercise started on 15th March, 2018 and ended 31st May 2019, exceeding its operation target.

The targeted rooms were 1,023,441 and population 1,229,128 as per AGAMAL 2019 operational plan, but at the end of the 11 weeks of spraying, a total of 1,048,990 out of the 1,023,441 targeted rooms were covered. This represents 102.5 per cent.

About 1,107,998 residents representing 91 per cent comprising 49.5 per cent males and 55.5 per cent females benefited from the project out of 1,229,128 people projected to be captured.

The statement added that it was a challenge finding people at home when the spray team visited communities and for that matter, they could not reach everybody.

Out of the population covered, 49.45 per cent were males and 50.55 were females while 2.84 per cent of the females protected were pregnant.

“It is worthy to note that 11.85 per cent of the total population protected is under the age of five years,” the statement said.

In order to ensure effective community protection, it said, the exercise was expected to cover at least 85 per cent of available rooms and population but they surpassed the World Health Organization’s expectation with the use of 175,482 units (sachets) of insecticides.

It described this year’s exercise as having ended successfully with the review meetings held across the operational districts to evaluate their operations, solicit feedback and collectively make informed decisions.

The IRSC is funded by Global Fund with support from AngloGold Ashanti from Obuasi Mines with insecticide co-payment agreement from NGenIRS project through IVCC.

The programme was implemented by AGAMAL in partnership with Ghana Health Service, National Malaria Control Programme with support and cooperation from various stakeholders.

The AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine as part of their core values and in line with their commitment has vowed to continuously make communities better off.

It says preparations were far advanced for the coverage of all Prison Cells across the country after last year’s successful exercise conducted in staff quarters and prisons nationwide.

AGAMAL as part of its gender parity recruited 15 female spray operators and five female supervisors in the 2019 indoor residual operation exercise with plans to include more females in subsequent exercises.

The 2019 spraying exercise witnessed a new insecticide called SumiShield 50WG which is odourless and does not leave staining on sprayed walls to check and manage vector resistance which has consistently been the programme’s policy over the years.

The SumiShield 50WG insecticide has a residual efficacy lasting up to nine months with similar characteristics with the other insecticides used for the past four years with the odourless and colourless as the only difference features from the other chemicals.

AGAMAL entreated Ghanaians to contribute their quota towards the fight against malaria by keeping the environment clean, report any symptom of malaria to the nearest health facility, use treated mosquito bed nets and other preventive measures as the theme for the 2019 campaign was “Zero Malaria starts with me”.