Heavy rain slows down indoor spraying in Lango

Heavy rain has slowed down the indoor residual spraying (IRS) programme in Lango Sub-region.

The Ministry of Health is conducting the IRS programme in Amolatar, Dokolo, and Lira districts, and Lira City. The exercise is aimed at reducing malaria prevalence, which is common in the rainy season.

In Dokolo, each spray pump operator was supposed to spray 10 houses per day but because of the torrential rainfall, they are spraying between two and three houses.

The district health officer (DHO), Dr Samuel Ojok, on Wednesday said rain has slowed down the exercise but they are optimistic that with about two weeks remaining, they shall meet the target.
He said there is an upsurge of malaria cases in Dokolo and those suffering from the disease are mainly pregnant women and children below five years.

“In the Financial Year 2019/2020, malaria prevalence rate in Dokolo District at just 8 per cent but now it is at 46 per cent,” Dr Ojok said in an interview.
“So, this IRS will help us in fighting this disease in addition to other interventions such as sleeping under treated mosquito nets,” he added.

The DHO said because of the damp weather, residents whose houses are supposed to be sprayed bring their household property out late and when they see any signs of rainfall, they take back their things inside. This has affected the implementation of the exercise, he added.

“Although rain is disturbing us, but I think we shall be able to complete the exercise in time because out of 83,000 houses we have in the district, we have sprayed 43,707 and within the remaining days of about two weeks we shall have completed,” Dr Ojok said.
The IRS exercise, which is being implemented by Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) – Vector Link (Abt Associates), started on April 26 and will end on May 22.

Dr Ojok said at the beginning of the exercise, there were some men that never wanted their houses to be sprayed, claiming that the chemical, Fludora Fussion, which is being used, would make them impotent.
“Three spray pump operators were locked inside a house and we had to call in police,” Dr Ojok said.

There are 11 sub-counties in Dokolo and each has two stores for keeping the IRS chemical and other gadgets for the spraying exercise.
In Lira District, by May 11, of the 48,926 households in seven sub-counties, 42,103 had been sprayed. In Lira City, at least 26,830 houses have been sprayed so far of the 32,957.

The district vector control officer, Mr Rashid Mwesige Etwop, also said heavy rain is affecting the implementation of the IRS exercise.

“Another problem is that most of our people in rural areas are farmers. So, when our people go to spray their houses, you find that they have locked their houses and are busy in their gardens,” Mr Mwesige said.

He said the same problem applies to people in Lira City because most of them are workers engaged in different forms of businesses. So, they lock their houses in the morning when they are going for work and come back late in the evening when the time schedule for the exercise has ended.

He said the chemical, Fludora Fussion, they are using does not have smell and does not have any known side effects, even to pregnant women and newly born babies.

“What we are doing is spraying the chemical on the wall so that any mosquito which sits on the wall is killed before attacking their victims. Remember fighting malaria is an individual effort; government only comes in to reinforce your efforts,” he said.

About the programme
IRS is an intervention to supplement other avenues of fighting malaria, which include distribution of insecticide-treated nets and treatment. 

Malaria cases in Lira have dropped to 13.3 per cent from 29.1 per cent between January 2020 and March 2021 due to intervention by the government through the IRS programme, according to data provided by the district statistician, Mr Geoffrey Ariko.

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