Malawi Country Spotlight
Despite progress, malaria continues to be a major public health problem in Malawi. The disease accounts for 40 percent of hospitalizations in children under five, 30 percent of all outpatient visits and is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality across all age groups. Transmission is perennial in most areas and peaks during the rainy season from November to April. For Malaria, there are 19 PMI focus districts receiving USAID assistance for malaria prevention and control, which includes the 15 integrated districts.
The Malawi National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), in collaboration with World Vision (WV) and with financial support from Global Fund, is implementing indoor residual spraying (IRS) in Mangochi District for the first time since 2011. The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) VectorLink Malawi project is providing intensive technical support to the NMCP and World Vision team as they prepare to implement IRS in October 2019.
In addition to providing technical assistance, PMI VectorLink has committed to supporting the NMCP’s use of the project’s, DHIS 2-based VectorLink Collect database to serve as the data management system during the Mangochi District door-to-door mobilization and IRS campaigns. This will be the first time that PMI VectorLink extends the use of its VectorLink Collect system to support an external, government-led IRS campaign.
From August 19th to 23rd, the VectorLink Malawi team organized a VectorLink Collect capacity building workshop for the NMCP, Mangochi District Health Office (DHO), Nkhotakota DHO, and World Vision teams. The five-day training workshop brought together participants with various levels of experience in DHIS 2 where they were trained on VectorLink Collect analytics applications, reports and data-use for decision-making. Through vigorous group discussions and ample practical exercises, participants from both workshop groups left the sessions with the skills required to rollout the VectorLink Collect in Mangochi District for the upcoming IRS campaign and to access key monitoring data and dashboards to drive decision-making.
