Parliamentary committee hails malaria intervention

Parliamentary Committee on Health chairperson Matthews Ngwale has expressed satisfaction with a malaria intervention called Insecticide Residual Spraying (IRS) in Balaka District.

Speaking on Saturday when the committee’s members appreciated the impact of the intervention in Traditional Authority (T/A) Amidu, he said government needs to scale up the exercise nationwide.

Ngwale said: “The IRS exercise being implemented in Balaka, Mangochi and Nkhata Bay districts is funded by Global Fund and for it to be scaled up to other districts, we need more funding.

“Government should put in the budget line for IRS and show commitment to eradicate malaria.”

He said his committee will lobby for the exercise to be scaled up nationwide as malaria remains the number one killer disease in the country.

Community member Sakia James from Nkwekwele Village in the area, commended World Vision Malawi and government for implementing the intervention in the area.

“My family members used to present with malaria in hospitals frequently, which affected the socio-economic wellbeing of the family,” he said.

James also commended his fellow community members for allowing IRS teams to spray their homes and locations, saying some communities do not welcome the exercise due to misconceptions surrounding the initiative.

World Vision Malawi chief of party for Global Fund Biziwick Mwale said they brought the committee members to Balaka to appreciate the impact of the exercise.

“We want the committee to help lobby for funding to scale up the interventions to other districts for the country to eradicate malaria,” he said.

World Vision Malawi in collaboration with Malawi Government is implementing the IRS intervention in Balaka, Mangochi and Nkhata Bay districts.

Besides IRS, Ministry of Health also encourages people to sleep under treated mosquito nets to prevent mosquito bites. Early this month, the ministry launched a malaria vaccination campaign in Mchinji District.