MCDI Malaria Capabilities - Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS)

MCDI’s experience from 2004 to date includes planning and managing a comprehensive indoor residual spraying program as part of the Bioko Island Malaria Control Project (BIMCP) in Equatorial Guinea (EG) with funding from Marathon Oil Company. The BIMCP completed eleven rounds of spraying by the end of 2009, covering more than 205,076 structures. Recent results in BIMCP from regular household surveys in sentinel sites of children under the age of 15 showed a continued reduction in the prevalence of parasitemia from 23% in 2007 to 18% in 2009. MCDI monitoring reveals that one malaria vector was reduced to 7% of pre-spray numbers after four rounds of spraying, and another vector was not found after the third round. MCDI worked with government and international partners on the appropriate choice of insecticide for IRS, including fulfilling environmental requirements, and establishing a system to monitor and respond to the development of insecticide resistance. Careful entomological monitoring organized by MCDI revealed emerging insecticide resistance to the first product, leading to a change in insecticide between the second and third rounds. The BIMCP recruits and trains spraying teams, and develops behavior change strategies and materials supportive of IRS. MCDI has procured all IRS-related equipment and commodities, including insecticides, spraying equipment, and survey-related materials and supplies for BIMCP. In addition, beginning in 2007, MCDI was designated as the Principal Recipient (PR) of a Global Fund grant under the Equatorial Guinea Malaria Control Initiative (EGMCI). The EGMCI project began spraying in one province on the EG mainland in 2007, and expanded to an additional province in 2008. If the Social Development Fund grant is approved, MCDI will expand spraying activities to all four provinces on the mainland.