from: http://news.ecowas.int/presseshow.php?nb=233&lang=en&annee=2013
The regional war against malaria being waged by ECOWAS and partners through the
biolarvicide programme moves to Ghana this week with a grand ground-breaking
ceremony on Tuesday 6th 2013 for the construction of a factory in Accra, the
nation’s capital for the production of the substance.
The programme, which is being held within the framework of the Campaign for the
Elimination of Malaria in West Africa by 2015, will bring together health
experts from within and outside the ECOWAS region. The President of Republic
of Ghana, the country’s Health Minister as well as the President of the ECOWAS
Commission and the Vice-President are among important dignitaries expected to
grace the event.
The Accra factory is one of the three being constructed in the region under a
tripartite agreement involving ECOWAS, Cuba and Venezuela. Similar ground
breaking ceremonies for the other two have been held in Cote d’Ivoire and Port
Harcourt, Nigeria. The regional campaign seeks to free the region from the
malaria scourge that kills thousands of people in Africa a year and costs the
continent more than US$12 billion annually.
Under the regional campaign focused on the strengthening of the vector control
component, recognized internationally as the only intervention that can reduce
malaria transmission from high level to zero, Cuba and Venezuela are providing
the financial support, technical know-how and technology transfer to make
readily available in the region, biolarvicide, the substance that destroys
mosquitoes, the malaria vectors in their larvae stage of development.
This is with the purpose of bolstering the elimination campaign through massive
larviciding/spraining across the region. Similar campaigns have yielded
resounding successes in Latin America and other parts of the world.
The Accra ground breaking event will be preceded by a tripartite experts
working group meeting by ECOWAS, Cuba and Venezuela on Monday, also in the
Ghanaian capital.
Participants will discuss among others, the feasibility study, cost build up
and investment architecture of the project as well as the forthcoming 4th High-
Level partners meeting in Venezuela.
Malaria is not only a major public health problem in Africa, with West Africa
bearing the heaviest burden; it also stunts the economic development of the
region and the continent as a whole.
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