Entomological Surveillance in Kenya takes a Community-Based Approach

This week’s Fist Bump Friday goes out to PMI VectorLink’s Kenya Ento Team for their efforts in capacity building. The team recently held a special training for four, county-level entomologists that work in two counties to support community-based surveillance in two counties: Kakamega and Vihiga. Understanding the importance of our journey to self-reliance, the VL Kenya team eagerly arose to the opportunity to also invite local entomologists to attend the training and include them in ongoing community-based entomological surveillance.

The training in Kakamega acted as a refresher for community health workers/volunteers (CHV) implementing community-based entomological surveillance. Four local entomologists, for whom this was their first training, serve in the Division of Vector-Borne and Neglected Diseases (DVBD) in Kakamega and Vihiga. As they plan to share the new knowledge with other DVBD entomologists, they will conduct monthly supervision of the ongoing entomology surveillance themselves.

The training culminated in a joint site supervision visit by VectorLink and DVBD teams with community health workers and the local entomologists putting their training into practice. One of the most interesting sessions involved the demonstration of Anopheles species identification by Ernest, the CHV for Mumias East (pictured holding the hand lens) after collecting the day’s catch. Also in attendance was a local area chief, marking a milestone in VL’s aim to engage and empower local capacity to respond to vector-bornediseases, especially malaria, at the local level. All in all, the VL Kenya team has exerted tremendous effort to respond to the call for capacity-building with support from PMI, all while taking every precaution to mitigate the risks of Covid-19 transmission.

Kudos to our Kenya team for paving the way for the rest of the PMI VectorLink project!