The Tema Regional office of Zoomlion Ghana Limited is undertaking a massive mosquito control exercise within Tema and its environs to help reduce the population of mosquitoes.
Recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) as the efficient biological agent against mosquito larvae, the larvae source management approach involves the application of Bacillus thuringiensis var israelensis (Bti) which has been recommended for larviciding, targets the mosquitoes at the larval stage and eliminates them before they develop into adult mosquitoes.
According to the Tema Regional Vector Control Officer, Mr. Enoch Mintah who is leading the team to undertake the exercise, he explained that “prior to application of the BTI, mosquito breeding sites were identified and mapped for effective application of the bio-larvicide”.
He then continued to say “the team who are well-trained and with the technical knowledge have been deployed to Tema East, Tema West, Ashaiman, Kpone-Katamanso and Prampram areas to apply the bio-larvicide to kill the mosquito larvae in the quest of controlling the mosquito population”.
Mr. Mintah pointed out that “ponds, stream fringe, water channels, rice fields, end of floodwater among others are possible breeding sites for mosquitoes hence the need for the public to uphold good environmental sanitation practices to discourages the breeding of mosquito sites”.
The Malaria Focal Person for Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate, Ms Elizabeth Appiah Bonnah also expressed satisfaction of the work done by Zoomlion Ghana Limited.
She said she is “optimistic that the exercise will be undertaken in all identified mosquito breeding sites within the Tema metropolis”.
She said “mosquito types such as Anopheles, Aedes, and Culex are of public health concern which needs to be managed effectively to help minimize the diseases they cause”.
Mrs Bonnah said “Malaria which is transmitted by the female anopheles’ mosquito is among the top ten recorded diseases in the Tema Metropolis and measures such as larvae source management among others will help reduce the population of mosquitoes”.
She further urged residents to regularly desilt drains and undertake good environmental sanitation practices to help keep their environment safe.
Malaria Statistics in Ghana
According to a report, Malaria in Ghana accounts for 4% of the global burden and 7% of the malaria burden in West Africa. As of 2015, Malaria was responsible for 19% of all recorded deaths in Ghana. Malaria-attributable mortality has declined significantly from 19% (2010) to 4.2% (2016). Malaria under 5 years’ case fatality rate declined from 15% to 11% from 2010 to 2016.
