This past week has been very busy in the Southern Province, especially at my health center (HC). Every year, the government encourages families to have the inside walls of their homes sprayed with pesticides to kill mosquitos to reduce malaria. Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) is a coating on walls that can last several months and can kill mosquitoes when they come into contact with it. It doesn’t directly prevent malaria, but prevents it from spreading. My HC has been used as a base by the government officials who are leading our Community Health Workers (CHWs) to spray homes in the 7 villages our HC serves. It’s especially important that IRS is implemented in Huye, my district, since it has one of the highest rates of malaria in the country!
That being said, I wanted to jump in on the action! I asked the woman leading the IRS operation and she allowed me to join her in the field with the CHWs. When talking to everyone about it, I learned that a lot of Rwandans are very resistant to IRS. I was confused because it’s paid for by the government and it reduces everyone’s chance of getting malaria, seems like a win-win to me! But I learned that it’s very inconvenient moving all of your belongings outside while the spraying happens, strangers would see the inside of your house and all of your belongings, the pesticide smells and gives people headaches, and above all, there’s a lack of education etc. It’s also the rainy season right now (I haven’t seen the sun since Sunday afternoon), and when everything has to be moved outside for several hours, the rain discourages IRS. It’s an uphill battle, but even if we spray one house, it’s a big difference for that one family.
Malaria Fast Facts:
- It’s a preventable disease
- It’s responsible for 10,000 maternal and 200,000 infant deaths worldwide
- It can be treated properly when diagnosed quickly with a blood test
- Only the female mosquitos spread the parasite
Rwandering around with Joanna 