After weeks of training, field staffs are now well equipped to undertake this year’s National Malaria Indicator Survey.
Supported by Global Fund and implemented by Catholic Relief Service (CRS) almost 200 staff of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, through the National Malaria Control Programme and Statistics Sierra Leone will be in all 14 districts starting today until the 8th of August 2016, to carry out the MIS which is designed to measure the coverage of the core malaria control interventions defined in the 2011-2015 National Strategic Plan to help the Country assess current implementation strategies.
According to the Malaria Control Programme Manager, Dr Samuel Smith stated that malaria remains one of the biggest public health challenges in Sierra Leone, but progress has been made over the years to address the situation, in defining the effort required to control the impact of malaria among its citizens.
He said the malaria control programme, under the Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control relies on solid partnership, among all key partners.
The Principal Investigator of the Malaria Indicator Survey, Colonel, Dr, Sahr Foday explained that the MIS is a one stand alone, nationally representative household surveys, conducted every two years, is meant to gauge progress on outcomes and impact by measuring status of key malaria indicators.
He added that this year’s survey is district specific and designed to measure the performance of each district and region, and the objectives of the survey will focus on specific issues and trends that are peculiar to the Sierra Leone situation.
Col. Foday said the key objectives of the 2016 MIS are to measure the level of ownership and use of mosquito nets, assess coverage of the intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant Women, identify treatment practices, including the use of specific antimalarial medications to treat malaria among children under 5, identify diagnostic trends prior to receiving antimalarial medications for treatment of fever and other malaria-like symptoms, measure the prevalence of malaria and anaemia among children age 6-59 months, assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices of malaria among women age 15-49 years, allow tracking of trends over time, and intended as a simpler, malaria focused survey alternative to DHS, MICS.
The Principal Investigator disclosed that during the survey, questionnaires will be given out to households, consent statements have been developed for each tool and are formulated for malaria testing, anaemia testing and treatment for positive RDTs.
Also the MIS results will provide the much needed data for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation which is very critical for programming to improve on the reduction and control of the disease.
The 2016 Malaria Indicator Survey is overseen by the technical working group which consist of representatives from the Ministry, Statistics Sierra Leone, University of Sierra Leone- College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, Catholic Relief Services, World Health Organisation, and UNICEF.
CRS is responsible for general administrative and logistical management of the survey, and will also administer all funds for the local costs of the survey and keeping adequate accounts.
Francis Tommy from Statistics Sierra Leone confirmed that all is set for the conduct of the survey including provision for field staff to be able to access, hard to reach communities with a device which is highly technological that will only operate when they reach a certain destination.
He said this device will allow field staff to do their work accurately to provide the right data for Government to improve on malaria control.
At the end of the exercise almost 7,000 households will benefit from the survey, which is conducted every two years.
By Ade Campbell
Tuesday June 28, 2016
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