The national director of Health, Ângela Gomes, announced today, in the City of Praia, that Cape Verde will be awarded with the certification of the elimination of Malaria at the end of October.
“On October 23rd we will receive the mission that will reward Cape Verde with the certification of the elimination of Malaria”, said Ângela Gomes, speaking to the press, at the opening of a training session aimed at 30 trainers in entomological surveillance and vector control of all health structures in the country, which takes place from September 25th to October 7th, at the UNICV facilities.
According to Ângela Gomes, this training action aims to train PNLP managers and vector control agents in entomological surveillance to eliminate malaria in Cape Verde.
In this training, these technicians will acquire the necessary knowledge to better understand the entomology of malaria, as well as the ability to gather the necessary tools to collect and manage entomological data to make evidence-based decisions, according to this person in charge.
As he recalled, it is included in the plan of activities to be carried out within the scope of the malaria certification process, which is in a “quite advanced” process.
“We have already received several international missions, especially from the WHO, to follow up on all the certification processes and the response we have been giving, regarding this anti-vector fight, is to improve sanitation conditions and health literacy among people. -Verdians because it is a process in which all citizens, health professionals, institutions, multi-sectoral groups have worked towards this”, he explained.
And to guarantee this certification, he also said that they are now aligning all strategies and management of imported malaria cases in the anti-vector fight, highlighting that this is a “very comprehensive” policy that should not only focus on this fight, but also in training in general.
“We have already trained medical technicians and nurses at national level and we will continue to do so that everyone is alert, in the elimination of outbreaks, the improvement in hospital waste, wastewater, considering that these are improvements that are necessary for daily life, not it’s just with the certification process”, he emphasized.
The national director of Health said that, annually, Cape Verde reaches almost 50 cases of malaria imported from countries on the African Coast.
In this case, he stressed that the important thing is to always be on alert, especially with the engagement of the entire emigrant community in this process and that communication also has to be “transversal” and “embraced by everyone” in this fight because there is the possibility of “reintroduction of new cases”, in this rainy season.
This is a training action given by a WHO consultant and national technicians and falls within the scope of the certification process for Cape Verde as a malaria-free country.