The project of using drones in the fight against malaria in Rwanda was launched in March 2020 and officially started in July 2020. The idea was to assist the already ongoing measures for controlling malaria by using drones to target mosquitoes at their breeding sites. Namely, Taking the fight right in the mosquitoes’ home.
The existing measures included the promotion of mosquito net use and Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS). These solutions were not enough since mosquitoes were still endangering people’s lives outside their homes and causing malaria transmission to increase in the population.
The approach introduced by Charis was to first map the mosquito breeding sites precisely, then detect positive breeding sites and spray using drones those areas that were previously inaccessible yet had mosquitoes breeding in them.
This approach proved to be extremely effective and three times faster than manual spraying. Moreover, the spraying is quite precise in reducing mosquito larvae densities.
As a result of the successful pilot project phase of eight months in KABUYE (336 ha), JABANA sector in GASABO district as identified by RBC; The finding showed that the Pilot Phase was very successful. The Average mosquito larvae density was reduced by 89.6%, the average anopheles’ mosquito larval density reduced by 92.8%, and there was a drastic decline of malaria incidence at KABUYE HC (Cases from HC and community) where malaria was dropped down by 90.6%, from 12,041 cases to 1,129 cases in comparison with data reported from July 2019-February 2020 and July 2020-February 2021.
TUMUKUNDE CLAUDINE, one of the Citizens who was highly affected by malaria, testified about the very big positive impact of Drones in her life:
“I rarely get malaria but one of my Children would always catch it. While working in the swamps, I was always asked to rush home because my child was once again Ill. I would rush him to the health center, where they would send us to the main hospital, where they would find that malaria almost killed him. Ever since we got drones, mosquitoes are nowhere to be found; you can ask these healthcare workers, I no longer bring them my children with malaria.”
https://youtu.be/YA_pHTVW6xc
(How a Rwandan company is fighting Malaria with Drones)
This intervention is still being scaled across the country in several Districts in Rwanda such as KAMONYI, HUYE, RUSIZI, NYAMASHEKE, and many others.
According to the Rwandan Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel NGAMIJE, the initiative is part of national efforts to curb the incidence of malaria infections across the country by 90% over the next nine years.
This intervention is a result of a partnership between Charis, the Government of Rwanda represented by the Ministry of Health, and Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC).
