The mother of four says mosquitoes had become unbearable with regular cases of malaria in her family. The Mukagasana family has their home just close to swampy area in the Gasabo district.
“We have been using supanets (bed nets) that were helpful but all the same mosquitoes were still rotating around the house. With the spraying, am sure the buzzing noises in my house will be history”, says Mukagasana.
Indoor-insecticide spraying is one of the malaria control programs adopted last year in addition to the widely used bed nets and a new prescription medicine Coartem. With this medication, the ages old prescriptions such as chloroquine and quinine – to which malaria parasites seemed to have developed resistance – are no longer available in pharmacies.
Health Officials say about two million people, especially those living in swampy areas with high mosquito populations are the target of the program. The mandatory spraying is done at the community level with all homes in the targeted locality expected to open their doors for spray-container wielding individuals – dressed in clearly marked clothing.
Despite concerns in some quarters about the safety of the pesticides used, government in vigorous public awareness campaigns says if done correctly, the side effects are insignificant. The messages running on broadcast media are in Kinyarwanda – a clear indication that they cover the rural communities.
Alongside the spraying, health officials compliment that with distributing insecticide-treated nets for children younger than age five and pregnant women.
The ongoing second phase of spraying is covering specific sectors of the three districts of Kigali, along with Kirehe and Nyanza districts in the Eastern and Southern provinces respectively.
In August last year when the program was first introduced, it also started in Kigali with a plan to cover at least 155.000 households. According to Ms Caroline Kayonga, the Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, some 90% of the target population has been covered.
For Mr. Eric Twahirwa, another resident of Gasabo district, the expectation he had developed after hearing about the spraying program mean it is coming to his locality as he and the neighbours have anxiously waited.
The Health Ministry says the U.S. funded program cannot be rolled out around the whole country at the same time due resource constraints.
With funding from the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), it was believed malaria-related mortality would drop by 85 percent among the most vulnerable groups – pregnant women, children under five years of age and persons living with HIV/Aids.
The PMI also provides life-saving drugs, prevents malaria in pregnant women through intermittent preventive treatment and purchases and distributes long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets.
A combination of these mechanisms, with major focus on millions of bed-nets that have been distributed, the UN reported earlier this year due to the unplanned "natural experiment", malaria prevalence here had dropped by a whooping 66%.
Hospital wards that were often full of malaria victims were beginning to empty up.
However, latest figures from 2008 Demographic and Health Survey, indicates that malaria – along with dehydration constitute the biggest causes of infant mortality in the country at a rate of 62 deaths for everything 1000 newborns.
The survey shows that some 103 children below 4 years are dying of these causes. (End)