Zoomlion joins fight against Yellow Fever
Waste Management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has lent its support to Ghana’s fight against Yellow Fever, which broke out in parts of the country recently.
As part of its contribution towards the control of the outbreak , the company is set to begin a spraying exercise to control the vector of the disease, the Aedes or tiger mosquito.
This step by Zoomlion, is also to complement the immunisation exercise already undertaken by the Ministry of Health and its agencies.
According to the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee of Nationwide Mosquito Control Programme (NAMCOP), Dr. Kofi Ahmed, urban Yellow Fever occurs among populations living in communities, mainly hamlets, villages, towns and are transmitted by the adult Aedes mosquitoes, which are day biting mosquitoes.
“This type of mosquito, Aedes that transmits the Yellow Fever virus, unlike the others, breeds in clean waters held in containers and some plants in and around the dwelling places in the communities,” he said, adding, “These may include water holding containers and receptacles such as drinking pots, flower pots, barrels, rain gutters, coconut husks, and undisturbed cattle foot prints in the soil, the axils of banana, plantain, cocoyam and other plants and brewing pito pots in some communities,” Dr. Ahmed said.
He added that other potential sources are abandoned and unused vehicle tyres, parked vehicles, especially in the fitting workshops and open garages, refrigerators, freezers etc”.
As part of its contribution towards fighting the outbreak, Zoomlion is to embark on a control exercise in the affected communities, which will include vigorous door to door public education programmes in the communities on the potential dangers involved in allowing the Aedes mosquitoes to breed in and around the homes.
The sensitization exercise will also alert community members to cover all containers holding water and discard unnecessary water in containers likely to breed the mosquitoes, as well as intensive environmental sanitation operations to clear the affected areas of filth, especially discarded tins and other containers.
The programme has put in place plans to begin the exercise in the affected areas of the Northern, Upper West and the Greater Accra Regions as announced by the Ministry of Health.
The Nationwide Mosquito Control Programme of Zoomlion Ghana Limited was launched in 2009 by the then minister responsible for health, Dr. George Sipa Yankey, to safeguard public health by ensuring abatement, containment and suppression of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.
Meanwhile, Zoomlion has appealed to the general public to give the necessary support to the programme as it embarks on the exercise of controlling the outbreak.
By Edmund Smith-Asante