Category: Field Notes

This week’s Fist Bump Friday goes out to VL ITN Lead Prince Owusu. For nearly two decades, Prince has promoted the use of bed nets across Ghana. As ITN Lead he ensures all ITN-related malaria prevention planned activities are implemented and achieve high-quality results. He works with NMCP to ensure households obtain ITNs through mass campaigns and routine channels, such as health facilities and schools. He also develops social and behavior change interventions to promote consistent ITN use and care among household members in efforts to reduce malaria. A key intervention being implemented is encouraging school children to drive ITN use and care among their peers, parents and in communities through drama and other community engagements.

Read about his experience and ways he works with the project and NMCP here.

Thanks to Prince for his passion and dedication to protecting those most vulnerable!

 

This week’s Fist Bump goes out to The PMI VectorLink Zambia team for their ongoing support in the 2020/2021 national ITN mass campaign. During this most recent campaign, VectorLink Zambia provided the NMEP with multi-level technical support, from central level planning to last-mile distribution.

VectorLink Zambia provided the NMEP with support at all levels of the ITN campaign from planning and implementation, to monitoring and evaluation in Luapula, Northern, Muchinga, and Eastern Provinces. Early in the campaign planning stages, the VectorLink team assisted the NMEP with establishing and operationalizing national planning structures and helped the NMEP develop and implement their 2020 Net Mass Campaign Plan of Action. The team helped the NMEP mainstream their COVID-19 guidance for the campaign and procured PPE for 20,000 community-based volunteers. The team also helped design, facilitate, and Tipezenji Ngoma upon receiving 4 LLINs from a CBV in Eastern Provincesupport cascade training for the mass campaign at the national, provincial, and district levels. Coupled with training, the team helped monitor and supervise household registration, door-to-door net distribution, and data entry in DHIS2. Finally, as part of VectorLink Zambia’s support with the last mile net delivery efforts, the team mobilized surge staff and transportation from the IRS campaign to help respond to net distribution challenges in the 4 provinces.

A huge shout out to Peter Kalenga, VectorLink’s ITN Campaign Coordinator, Humphrey Tembo, our Senior M&E Officer, and Oliver Lulembo, our Senior ITN Technical Advisor for the fantastic work they have done over the last 12 months to help this campaign run as smoothly as possible! They’ve gone above and beyond every single day and as a result of their efforts, VectorLink Zambia was able to successfully support the distribution of over 6.8 million ITNs including those procured by PMI and Global Fund.

Congratulations, VL Zambia and all those supporting the efforts on the PMI VectorLink Project!

This week’s Fist Bump goes out to VL Niger for their support in updating the country’s new Maternal and Child Health Card, which has now been validated by the Ministry of Health. VL Niger successfully supported the NMCP in including key messages on continuous ITN distribution on the new card.

The ITN use/access ratio in Niger, which measures population-level use in relation to population-level access to an ITN, remains low, ranging from 0.23 in Tahoua to 0.66 in Niamey (2012 DHS). With the exception of Niamey, this ratio is well below the 0.60 threshold for a “poor” rating.

The NMCP and partners currently conduct national ITN mass distribution campaigns every three years, with the next one planned in 2021. In between campaigns, the NMCP supports routine distribution through ANC and vaccination visits. To effectively leverage these routine ITN distribution channels, VectorLink has been collaborating with the Maternal and Child Health Department (Direction de la santé de la mère et de l’enfant, DSME) and the Vaccination Department (Direction d’Immunization) at the Ministry of Health (MOH) to effectively implement the Operational Guidelines on Routine LLIN Distribution in ANC and EPI activities.

In Niger’s Dosso and Tahoua regions, VectorLink supported the training of more than 487 health center heads and 17 health district management teams on the latest guidelines. With VL’s support, the NMCP has conducted supportive supervision in 58 health centers (Centres de santé Intégrés) to ensure that ITN distribution according to NMCP guidelines is followed by the health providers. Based on the most recent supervision visits in Dosso and Tahoua, 92% of health centers had ITNs in their warehouse, 67% of pregnant women received ITNs during their first ANC contact, and 51% of children under one year of age received ITNs during immunization, showing that more efforts are needed to ensure continued distribution and use of ITNs in the target populations.

PMI VectorLink supported the NMCP with the incorporation of the Operational Guidelines on Routine LLIN Distribution in DSME and DI guidelines, supervision tools, and patient booklets, including maternal and child health cards. The new maternal and child health card has now been validated by the MOH. A message on ITN utilization and a table for capturing data on routine distribution have been included. VectorLink will support the printing of approximately 18,545 updated health cards that will be distributed to pregnant women during their ANC visits in the Dosso and Tahoua regions.

Congratulations, VL Niger and all those supporting the efforts on the PMI VectorLink Project!

This week’s Fist Bump goes to VL Home Office’s Enobasi Ekanem and VL Kenya’s Zeddy Bore, Catherine Kamau, and Timothy Githinji for leading the recent Local Procurement Life Cycle training. This training, which follows the Local Procurement Tracker Training conducted in March 2020, emphasized the local procurement process before the RFQ stage.

The training was designed to address the challenges country teams face in procuring local goods and services, such as IRS materials and commodities, hardware materials, consumables, vehicles for hire, food vendors, water supply, internet, and more. This training is part of a larger effort to ensure compliance with project, corporate, and USG guidelines for procurement, transparency in processes, and sound decision making, all of which contribute to cost containment.

Over the past year, Enobasi has developed a consistent and user-friendly tracking tool that helps to identify issues earlier in the procurement cycle, which in turn, supports short- and long-term decision making.

The training discussed how local procurement is handled by the larger Abt team, the procedures and policies that must be followed, the procurement timeline, and how to plan and budget for local procurement. The training outlined the Request for Quotes and the Review and Award process and included a panel discussion on best practices and lessons learned, showcasing the VL Kenya Site Team.

Approximately 60 participants, including COPs, Procurement Managers, Ops Managers, M&E Managers, and Technical Managers, attended the WebEx training.

Kudos, Eno, Zeddy, Catherine, and Timothy! Well-done.

This week’s Fist Bump Friday goes out to VL Burkina Faso for their success in completing bioassays of PBO-synergist and dual active ingredient Interceptor G2 (IG2) nets. This was the first time bioassay Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for PBO and IG2 nets, which were developed with input from VectorLink staff, were implemented in the field. Bioassays are important for understanding the insecticidal effectiveness of ITNs and do this by measuring mosquito knockdown and mortality, among other variables. For pyrethroid-only ITNs, these two variables can be combined into measures of optimal and minimal effectiveness. SOPs outline how labs should be performing the bioassays for different types of nets.

PBO and IG2 nets are likely to play an important role in controlling pyrethroid-resistant malaria vector species and were distributed in Burkina Faso in 2019. However, it is important to monitor the insecticidal durability of these nets to see how long they last underused in the community. Bioassay SOPs were developed by PMI/CDC, and Burkina Faso was the first VL country to conduct durability monitoring of both PBO-synergist and dual active ingredient nets, in addition to standard pyrethroid nets. The Research Institute of Health Sciences (IRSS) located in Bobo-Dioulasso, successfully conducted cone bioassays of pyrethroid and PBO nets and tunnel tests with IG2 nets using well-characterized pyrethroid resistant and susceptible colonies of An. gambiae s.l.. Experience from baseline tests led to SOP revisions, including a standardized approach to characterization of pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles for use in bioassays and increasing the number of positive control new nets to quantify any loss of efficacy more accurately in field nets.

Data collection for the 12-month monitoring round was successfully completed in November 2020. In total, 510 households were visited, 723 nets were assessed for damage, and 90 IG2, Interceptor, and PermaNet 3.0 nets (30 nets from Banfora, Gaoua, and Orodara each) were collected to undergo chemical content testing and bioassays using the revised SOPs.

Congratulations on a job well done, VL Burkina Faso!

Happy New Year, PMI VectorLink Project! Before we leave 2020 completely, let’s all give a huge congratulations to VL Tanzania for their successful IRS campaign on Mainland, which they completed on Dec 21, 2020. It was a herculean effort – 6 districts and 3 refugee camps stretching over 700km in Northwest Tanzania in two phases. Among these districts, one (Ukerewe) is composed entirely of islands, adding to the complexity of the campaign. VL Tanzania scaled-up mobile data collection from the 2020 pilot in the spring, prioritizing the use of mobile data on remote islands.

Preliminary data show that the team sprayed 552,643 structures during the two phases, exceeding the target of 520,008 structures and protecting 2,054,339 people, including Tanzanians as well as refugees from Burundi and Congo.

The team overcame multiple challenges this year, including the need to shift timing due to the Tanzanian national election, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to ensure that populations were protected during peak transmission season, while avoiding IRS during the national election, the campaign had to spray later than usual and encountered rain and muddy roads. But they pushed through! (SEE PHOTO)

The team was able to fully spray the districts where IRS was suspended in the spring because of the pandemic, ensuring that these populations were covered. At the completion of the mainland campaign, there were no known cases of COVID-19.

Kudos to the entire VL Tanzania team!

 

VL Zimbabwe Delivers IRS during COVID-19

This week’s Fist Bump goes to VL Zimbabwe for completing their 36-day campaign on December 14^th in two districts in Mashonaland East. Conducted in two phases, VL Zimbabwe sprayed 133,078 structures for a spray coverage of 97.3%. Because seasonal staff stay in tents at campsites, VL Zimbabwe had to be extra vigilant to reduce any risk of COVID-19. It’s exciting to report that during the whole campaign, there was no reported contact with suspected cases or symptoms/signs of COVID-19 among seasonal workers nor VL staff.

How did they do it? To begin with, VL Zimbabwe increased the number of campsites from 4 in 2019 to 9 in 2020, to decrease the number of people at each campsite. Then, VL Zimbabwe followed strict risk mitigation measures, including:  

• SOPs self-quarantined before coming to the campsite, and in between phase 1 and phase 2 of spraying.
• Daily health checks conducted with a standard symptom checklist.
• Temperatures taken daily
• Teams worked in bubbles – only interacted within their bubbles.
  • Ex: bathing time and breakfast scheduled by bubbles
  • Tents grouped by bubbles at the campsite.
• Reduced capacity in tents to 50% – utilized local schools to provide sleeping accommodations.
• Supervisors strictly enforced the use of masks at campsites.
• Hand sanitizers were used regularly.
• Everyone washed their hands (handwashing station) when entering and leaving any venues, as well as before and after eating.
• Social distancing (at least 2 meters) to the greatest extent possible.
• Devices (phones, laptops, etc) were disinfected twice per day (morning and afternoon). These devices were not shared and were assigned to a specific person.
• Latrines were disinfected on daily basis using chlorine-based disinfectants.
• Food handlers underwent health assessments on a daily basis
• All utensils used for food preparation safely sanitized and stored as well as inspected and approved during and after every use by a qualified environmental health practitioner.
• All IRS personnel used hand sanitizer before going to the morning assembly.
• Drivers disinfected vehicles on daily basis.
• Strict social distancing of not less than 2 meters apart at the morning mobilization assembly required.

Congratulations, VL Zimbabwe for ensuring the safety and protection of everyone involved with the campaign, and kudos to protecting 315,403 people from malaria in the IRS campaign!!

This week’s Fist Bump goes to VL Senegal for the completion of their ITN PBO distribution campaign during the COVID-19 epidemic. VL Senegal carried out the campaign in collaboration with Senegal’s NMCP from November 12-23, 2020. To prepare for the campaign, VL Senegal conducted:

• a micro-planning workshop (25-26 October)
• and orientation of M&E Assistants (4 October 2020);
• training of CHWs and data collectors (9-10 November and 16-17 November),
• labeling of ITNs (November 10 to 17), and
• transport of ITNs to central locations before community-distribution (11-20 November)
• door-to-door distribution of PBO ITNs

Distribution was conducted in Tambacounda District, in seven health posts across 60 villages, and was part of a randomized MDA in the same 60 villages in Tambacounda (zone with low to moderate malaria transmission in Senegal). The single registration and distribution process was done by a team of two – data collectors and community health workers – to avoid multiple contacts with beneficiaries in the context of COVID-19. Data collection for the registration and data collection was then conducted by mobile phone.

VL Senegal successfully distributed 10,015 ITNs to 20,104 people, resulting in an average of 1 ITN per 2 people, and 1 ITN per bed.

Congratulations, VL Senegal! More than 20,000 people are now safer when sleeping at night.

This week PMI VectorLink marked the end of three successful IRS campaigns! Kudos to VL Madagascar, VL Malawi, and VL Mozambique for your tireless efforts in ensuring protection from malaria. Throughout 2020, all of PMI VectorLink’s country teams have carefully planned their work to ensure we carry out our IRS and ITN campaigns during the pandemic without leaving anyone unprotected. And while these congratulations for completing a campaign may seem like just another day for VectorLink, in fact, it’s quite a feat.

With the final spray days this week, the numbers are preliminary, but let’s take a look:

• In Madagascar, VL sprayed 194,238 structures in the 24-day campaign with a 96.6% coverage, protecting 828,233 people.
• After 30 days of operation in Malawi, the team sprayed approximately 115,000 structures with a 90.3% coverage and 450,000 people protected.
• VL Mozambique covered 361,817 structures over 35 days, protecting approximately 1,619,000 people and achieving 103.3% coverage.

Add those numbers up, and in the past 35 days, VL protected nearly 2.9 million people! Incredible. Congratulations to all the teams! I hope you get some rest and are able to enjoy the holidays! We value you all.

Earlier this year, Côte d’Ivoire was set to undertake its first-ever, large-scale IRS campaign to compliment the country’s existing ITN distribution program. Unfortunately, due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, all health activities were paused. But per WHO, PMI/USAID, NMCP, and the National Vector Control Steering Committee guidance, malaria prevention activities were authorized to continue, deeming them essential in helping to lessen the compounded effects that malaria and COVID would have on communities. Côte d’Ivoire’s campaign was initially intended to be in two phases, with a campaign in Sakassou in April and Nassian district in June. In order to mitigate the risk of spreading or contracting the coronavirus, the team decided to condense the campaign into a single, simultaneous campaign in the two targeted Districts instead of spraying one district at a time. But, with only the same amount of spray operators available, it seemed impossible to cover such a large-scale campaign in this way – after all, SOPs cannot be in two places at once! Coupled with the suspension of all STTA support due to travel restrictions, the team needed an innovative solution to the challenges they were up against.

With this being the country’s first IRS campaign, the Côte d’Ivoire team was determined to make it a success despite the numerous hurdles they faced. To maximize human resources and address campaign needs, the team established an internal capacity-building strategy for all VL staff members on the team. The team trained the technical staff on the specifics of IRS implementation procedures, preparing them to maintain, lead, supervise, and coordinate the operational sites in Sakassou and Nassian. Recognizing that the campaign would need all the human resource support it could get, the team even trained the drivers, office assistants, finance, and administrative staff on some of the technical aspects of the campaign for additional support! As an added bonus, all training was conducted virtually via WebEx, WhatsApp, and recorded training video demonstrations.

In Nassian Health District, Mr. Koffi Ange (Office Assistant/Janitor) and Mr. Grebe Abreham (Driver) were trained as supervisors of Sominassé and Banvayo operational sites. During the 30-day campaign, they led and coordinated all IRS activities including morning mobilization, vehicle and bike coordination, spraying supervision, warehouse store management, waste management, data collection, end-of-day activities, and community mobilization. Sominassé and Banvayo exceeded their spray coverage goals with 102.7 % and 99.4% coverage respectfully, while Mr. Abraham and Mr. Koffi were respectively ranked 2nd and 3rd for best spray coverage among all the operational sites of the Nassian Health District. As a result of their leadership, the teams sprayed a total of 6,739 structures, protecting 10,762 people (1,817 children under 5 years old and 264 pregnant women) from malaria.

Way to go team Cote d’Ivoire for your cohesive and strategic approach, and congratulations to Abreham and Ange for your accomplishments!