More (Entomology Training) is Always Better

Recognizing which mosquito species carry the malaria parasite and understanding which insecticides may or may not still be effective is critical to successful vector control. This week’s Fist Bump goes to VectorLink Zimbabwe’s Technical Manager, Dr. Ron Masendu, for conducting a capacity strengthening training on insecticide resistance monitoring and morphological identification of Anopheles mosquitoes with Africa University (AU) staff. 

Six people from AU attended the insecticide resistance training, which covered the CDC bottle bioassay and WHO tube test. Fourteen people attended the morphological identification training where the main objective was to identify Anopheles mosquitoes using standard morphological dichotomous keys, an essential preliminary step that guides the subsequent molecular species identifications of each mosquito specimen. Each training session lasted two days.

VL Zimbabwe has partnered with AU, which does the lab analysis for VL Zimbabwe’s mosquito specimens collected during routine entomological surveillance, and insecticide resistance monitoring, since 2017. This work supports the NMCP with whom AU also shares their results.

The training was a huge success. Those who attended were very enthusiastic about learning new skills, and AU now has more staff that can identify mosquitoes morphologically and test them for insecticide resistance. 

Sounds like a great training! Kudos to Dr. Masendu and VL Zimbabwe.