Tracking Malaria-Carrying Mosquitoes: A Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea

“Malaria awareness is a big part of my job here. This role is important because we’re searching and implementing ways to prevent malaria-related deaths.” – Blessing Uzoeshi, Peace Corps Volunteer, Guinea

Growing up in Albany, New York, Blessing Uzoeshi didn’t spend much time thinking about mosquitoes. Now as a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Guinea, she thinks about them a lot, as she supports her community to learn more about malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and protect themselves from malaria.

Guinea’s entire population of 12 million people are at risk of contracting malaria, including the approximately 12,000 people who live in the town of Tormelin, a farming community where Blessing serves as a public health volunteer. Blessing provides education on malaria for pregnant women in her community, as mothers and their babies can be at increased risk for complications from the disease.

Recently, Blessing was trained to take on a new role monitoring mosquitoes, as part of a collaborative initiative between the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the Peace Corps.

Collecting detailed information about mosquitoes—including their geographic distribution, their resting and feeding habits, and other behaviors—is called entomological surveillance. This surveillance is important for guiding activities to prevent malaria transmission, such as distribution of insecticide-treated nets. While the work is often led by trained scientists and vector control staff, local residents are sometimes trained to undertake mosquito collection as an alternative approach in areas that are more remote or difficult to access.

PMI is working with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) in Guinea to determine the drivers of malaria transmission in four high-burden areas, including Fria Prefecture, where Blessing lives. According to Yansane Alhousseny, the area’s entomological focal point, Fria Health District has the highest malaria incidence rate in the region. Due to a lack of entomological surveillance within affected communities, he and his colleagues did not have the data they needed to make informed decisions about how to protect people from malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Earlier this year, PMI trained Yansane and his counterparts in three other districts on techniques for collecting and identifying mosquitoes. Yansane then trained community volunteers from Tormelin. After the training, the community volunteers collected mosquitoes to provide data on malaria transmission, including the proportion of mosquitoes infected in Tormelin. The information will be used to raise awareness among the population about the threat of malaria and to develop activities to protect them.

Blessing and four other Peace Corps volunteers in the high-burden communities took part in an online training to learn how to support the community mosquito collectors in their work. Blessing is now monitoring equipment and overseeing the collection of mosquitoes by two of Tormelin’s community volunteers since Yansane, who is based 29 kilometers away from Tormelin, is too far away to regularly perform the supervision needed.

“Malaria awareness is a big part of my job here,” says Blessing. “This role is important because we’re searching and implementing ways to prevent malaria-related deaths.”

“Blessing’s involvement will allow close supervision and follow up on the others involved and will also enable us to think about expanding entomological surveillance into neighboring communities,” says Yasane.