Ground Breaking Malaria Research

The mosquito abatement pilot program is beginning to wind down as we end the near of the rainy season in Mali. The rainy season is when mosquitoes are at their height. Our field workers Issa and Nfaly are spraying and treating water as well as setting and collecting the traps weekly in the villages. Suriname, our graduate student associate from the University of Bamako, is picking up the traps and taking specimens to the University for examination. 

Our team has been visiting with the villagers regularly to determine their feelings on the project and collect qualitative data. Here are some thoughts and feelings from one of our test villages. The midwife of Simidji feels that there are less cases of malaria this year compared to last year and there have been no infant or child deaths due to malaria in the village this year. 

One man living in Simidji shared, “last year at this time I couldn’t sleep in my room because of all the mosquitoes, but this year, we don’t see any mosquitoes so I am able to sleep and get some rest.”

During this project’s first year we realized we need to use different trap systems in the future as we are not collecting as many mosquitos as our team of researchers would like. We are working on finding better traps to use for next year. There are currently no definitive results thus far from the University on their analysis of the trapped mosquitos, but we should have them by the time of our next report. 

In August, Anounou, Malaria Control Project Field Manager, visited the Mali Minister of Health to report on the progress of our project. The meeting was positive and she appreciated the update and asked that he keep her informed. Anounou was also able to visit with the Health Committee of the Parliament and they want to visit Utah and Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District in the future to learn more about the abatement processes. This increase in interest is a great sign and moves the project toward the level of sustainability we are looking for in the long-term.

In September, Anounou attended the Pan African Mosquito Association Meeting in Ethiopia along with Ary Faraji and Mohamed Traore. Anounou reported he learned a great deal and made some important contacts with other African countries who are working on creating their own mosquito abatement programs. 

Earlier this month, the village chief of Simidji said, “Please don’t stop the project now. We can see there are less mosquitos. We are grateful.”

We look forward to having the data to support these accounts by our next report. Thank you for supporting this life-changing work!