Emergency Control of Malaria and other Major Vector Borne Diseases amongst Refugees in Conflict and Flood Affected Areas in South Sudan

Objectives

To reduce morbidity and mortality caused by malaria and other VBD by ensuring that the refugee camps and surrounding vulnerable communities in Flood Affected Areas of Upper Nile State and Unity State are protected through a targeted and integrated vector management (IVM). Larviciding campaigns were done to protect people from Anopheles and Aedes mosquito borne diseases such as malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Rift Valley Fever and Yellow Fever.

There was active participation and integration of target community leaders, camp management NGOs, and local government bodies in the planning and implementation stages as well as a workforce composed of the communities targeted. All potential breeding sites were regularly surveyed on a biweekly basis for the presence or absence of mosquito larvae/pupae. These surveys helped the MENTOR team in deciding on the implementation of larviciding rounds.

The data strongly suggest that the IRS/larviciding campaign in conjunction with LLIN distributions and targeted IEC had a significant impact on the burden of malaria. Sudden and sharp decrease in malaria incidence, community acceptance of the IVM interventions was extremely high, enabling remarkable coverage rates for the IRS/larviciding throughout all of the camps and the surrounding host communities.