PAMCA Participates in the 89th American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) Annual Meeting
The 89th edition of the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) Annual Meeting took place in Reno, Nevada, USA, between the months of February 27 – March 03, 2023. The meeting brought together diverse stakeholders including researchers, educators, vector control professionals, industry representatives, and students in mosquito control to share knowledge, advances, and best practices in mosquito control. The meeting also provides great opportunities for striking collaborative agreements and networking. Recognizing the strengths that lie in building productive and sustainable partnerships with regional and continental bodies, PAMCA and AMCA came together to form a collaborative memorandum of understanding (MoU) in February 2021.
The MoU in force for three years now, has strengthened cooperation between African vector control professionals and their US counterparts with tangible benefits accrued so far. Among the visible ones include the exchange programs between mosquito abatement districts in the US and African vector control practitioners where PAMCA has been sending staff of the national programs, students, and researchers to learn about mosquito control programs in the US for the last three years to learn about best practices in mosquito control that could be adapted to the African context. This strong partnership has now seen the two organizations sending their top leadership to participate in their respective annual conferences.
In this year’s AMCA Meeting, PAMCA was represented by its President, Prof. Charles Mbogo, and Dr. Elijah Juma (Program Manager). Prof. Charles took advantage of the podium provided to him by the meeting organizers to underscore the need for strong collaboration between the AMCA membership and their PAMCA compatriots. The AMCA has been in existence for over 89 years, he said. That means more than 89 years of accumulated knowledge of mosquito control which could be of great benefit to other parts of Africa and indeed younger organizations like PAMCA that have only recently been in existence. He further stated that given the varying and diverse context in Africa, the community of PAMCA membership has accumulated complimentary wealth of knowledge and skills that could be of benefit to the American mosquito control programs and as such, the two organizations should continue to strengthen the relationships that they are building, especially between the abatement districts and specific national control programs in the African continent. Prof. Mbogo took the opportunity during the meeting to formally invite the AMCA membership to the PAMCA Annual Conference & Exhibition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.