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WORLD MOSQUITO DAY 2022

 

 Message from PAMCA Executive Director 

 

Dear PAMCA Friends and Partners,  

The World Mosquito Day (WMD) is observed every year on August 20 in honour of Sir Ronald Ross for his role in incrimination of mosquitoes as the vectors, first of Avian malaria in 1897 and then human malaria parasites in 1899. Today, approximately 125 years after this seminal discovery, this day has been dedicated to raising awareness about the threat of malaria and other diseases transmitted by one of the world’s deadliest killer – the mosquito. On this occasion of the WMD, PAMCA joins the global community in raising awareness about the public health burden of mosquito-borne diseases, and in particular malaria, and in the African continent, and the work that still needs to be done to alleviate the scourge. 

  

In the latest World Malaria Report of 2021, malaria continues its devastating trend of high mortality and morbidity with 47,000 more deaths reported in 2020 compared to the year before, with over 90% of these cases being reported in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA). The rebound in malaria case morbidity and mortality is attributed to a number of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic that forced resource re-allocation (financial and manpower) to respond to the pandemic, as well as the now familiar trend of plateauing of efficacy of the conventional vector control interventions including long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS). The threat of parasite drug resistance is also expanding and becoming a point of major concern. 

 

At PAMCA, we continue to pursue our core mandate of working together with our global partners to strengthen capacity for vector-borne disease surveillance and elimination in Africa through targeted training opportunities. We remain intentional about encouraging and forging strong linkages between the national programs and research and academic institutions to avail the capacity needed to respond to VBDs in a concerted manner. In this regard, we have continued to partner with our regional collaborating and knowledge translation centres, to avail training opportunities to different countries with high malaria burden. Other than the trainings which we have undertaken and reported in the previous editions of this publications, in our latest effort, we have partnered with the Djibouti Ministry of Health and the country’s National Malaria Control Program to deliver training to the program staff, specifically targeting district entomologists involved in district vector surveillance programs.

  

At PAMCA we also continue to play a strong role in advocacy for national governments of disease-endemic countries, as well as global funding partners and governments to allocate more resources to accelerate attainment of the goal of malaria reduction of malaria by 90% by 2030 in line with the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030. As our partners, I invite you to walk this journey with us, and play your part in attainment of these ambitious goals.  

 

In this second edition of our 2022 quarterly Newsletter, we take the opportunity to highlight some of the programs we have been actively engaged in, the key milestones we have achieved, and point you to the key strategic we are pursuing. As we are just over a month to the 8th edition of the PAMCA Annual Conference & Exhibition 2022, it is my distinguished honour to welcome you to Kigali, Rwanda, for the first face-to-face conference, after a two-year break occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides the main conference, we have a number of pre-conference training and workshop events lined up, thanks to the support and commitment of our partners. Happy reading and see you in Kigali from September 26-29, 2022.  

 

Access PAMCA 2nd Quarter Newsletter

On this WMD PAMCA & WIVC has also prepared a message in English French & Swahili, calling on joint forces to fight and curb the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.

Access the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn1oY3_bbTc

 

Prosper Chaki, PhD  

Executive Director, PAMCA 

 

 

 

 

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