Black Fly menace brought under control

Miss Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment Science and Technology on Tuesday said after 25 years of control activities by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it has declared that the incidence of black fly menace had been brought under control.

She said since the project came to an end, the Ministry of Health has been distributing drugs to inhabitants of the endemic areas and conducting sample checks on residents to prevent a recurrence.

Mrs Ayittey said this in an answer to a Parliamentary question tabled by Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim, member for Tain.

She said the issue about the fly infestation in the Bui Dam area was the preserve of the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Services.

It would be recalled that the Ministry of Health successfully carried out a black fly eradication and onchocerciasis control programme in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions in the 1980s-90s.

This was under a large scale project with technical support from the WHO, adding that, the Water Research Institute of the Council for Science and Industry Research participated in the programme to monitor the environment and that aerial application of pesticides along the Black and White Volta River ensured that there were no adverse effects on non-target groups.

She said the national onchocerciasis secretariat, the Headquarters of the control body, which was founded by the WHO was based in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso and the problem was handled and dealt with by a team of inter-disciplinary experts from within and outside Ghana and Burkina Faso.**