The Operation Eradicate Malaria Campaign, which was conceived and launched by President Jammeh in February 2008, recently began in Janjangbureh in CRR. The official beginning was the end of a ten-day training exercise for spraymen on the technicalities of indoor residential spraying.
The training was organised by the National Malaria Control Programme under the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare. 20 participants drawn from different regions took part in the training and they will now act as trainers in their regions when the major implementation takes place later this year.
During the training the participants were taught how to safely use the dot insecticide which is the World Health Organisation's recommended chemical for use in households.
As part of the training the newly trained spraymen conducted practical sessions which involved spraying houses all over Janjangbureh.
Speaking at the end of the training, Kanyi Touray, the Governor of CRR, thanked President Jammeh for buying all the chemicals and spray equipment. He also implored the population to co-operate fully with the operation in order to eradicate malaria. Speaking on behalf of the programme manager, Bala Kondeh, senior programme officer at the National Malaria Control Programme, said the end of the training marked the preparation for the implementation of a mass spraying exercise in the countryside. Malaria control, according to him, calls for concerted efforts and as such different strategies are used for malaria control. In relation to how prepared the nation is, he revealed that the president has already ordered over 300 expert sprayers at a cost of D1,000,000. He finally hailed the Medical Research Council for providing both technical and human resource assistance.
For his part, Dr. Mamo Jawla, the head of disease prevention and control unit of the World Health Organisation, said indoor spraying is one of the best methods of malaria control. He expressed the hope that new techniques would help speed up the eradication of Malaria in The Gambia.
Dr. Samson Jaiwo Awolola of the Medical Research Council described the training as very productive and said all the participants had been imparted with all the information they needed regarding indoor residential spraying.
