IVCC has developed its new ‘Ambassador Pack’ which is now available digitally or in hard copy version. The Pack contains 14 loose leaf pages which cover the broad spectrum of IVCC’s work, including Product Development, Key Highlights and Market Access workstreams. The pack also contains an updated version of the IVCC strategy which was completed earlier this year.
View the online version of the Ambassador Pack here.
NgenIRS Evidence Launch 30th April 2020“I am very pleased that together we achieved our goal of establishing a sustainable, growing and competitive market for third generation, longer lasting and resistance-breaking insecticides for Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS).”
On December 31st, 2019, the Unitaid funded NgenIRS project came to an end. The NgenIRS team, led by IVCC and made up of colleagues from PATH and Abt Associates, worked in partnership with 16 malaria control and elimination programmes across Africa, the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), the Global Fund and three insecticide manufacturers.
The downward trend in IRS use was reversed and the resulting expansion of use has resulted in significant public health impact, savings in commodity costs and new evidence showing the cost-effectiveness of third generation IRS (3GIRS). What’s more, the foundation has been laid to sustain and expand on these successes, providing malaria programmes with more options for rotation and ultimately more lives saved on the path towards malaria elimination.
Today we launch a collection of evidence materials, consisting of a video, a project overview and evidence slides (available in both English and French). These materials are available for free download on the NgenIRS web page and IVCC resource library. These materials have been prepared to show the impact of the NgenIRS project and are intended for use by partners and stakeholders who need to communicate the contribution of 3GIRS products to the reduction of malaria. We hope that these are useful to you and advice on use can be found within the materials.
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the NgenIRS team and our many other partners who worked tirelessly and selflessly to make this project such a huge success. Although we have achieved great things together, we must maintain this commitment to enhancing and smartly deploying the vector control toolbox if we are to reach our shared goal of malaria eradication.
Fighting Insecticide Resistance in Ghana 25th May 2018Ghana shares their story using SumiShield® 50WG
Ministry officials highlighted the successes over the past few years and emphasized the challenges faced in the country, in particular, the growing threat insecticide resistance.
The timely availability and launch of SumiShield® 50WG in Ghana, now provides the country with an alternative insecticide for indoor residual spraying (IRS) in a region in Ghana where entomological monitoring flagged up resistance to all other available insecticides. It has a new mode of action, and was prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO) for indoor residual spraying in October 2017. The National Malaria Control Programme(link is external)(NMCP) in Ghana is now able to implement sub-national rotation in the country with 2, third generation insecticides SumiShield® 50WG and Actellic® 300CS.
Indoor residual spraying is one of several tools supporting the NMCP’s goal of reducing malaria morbidity and mortality by 75 percent in Ghana between 2012 and 2020. The two IRS implementation partners in Ghana working closely in partnership with the NMCP are AGAMal malaria control programme(link is external), supported by the Global Fund, and the President’s Malaria Initiative (link is external)(PMI) VectorLink(link is external) project.
Ghana has been a NgenIRS country partner since 2017, procuring 3GIRS insecticides at reduced prices as a result of participation in consolidated forecasting, followed by manufacturer discounts and a co-pay mechanism to reduce prices further. The NgenIRS project has enabled the country to expand its coverage compared to the 2016 campaign, with the inclusion of Karaga District.
During 2017, thirteen districts were sprayed by the AGAMal and seven by PMI VectorLink respectively, protecting an estimated 1.9 million people.
The Malaria Programme Manager, Dr. Kezia Malm, stated that malaria is still the number one cause of death in children under 5 in the country and the programme and partners are working tirelessly to reduce these numbers. The areas most affected by insecticide resistance is the Ashanti Region. Districts targeted for IRS in this region during 2018 would have been excluded due to resistance levels, if a new insecticide was not available at the time of spraying.
After the press briefing and a visit to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Institute, the press delegation went to Ashanti region where they were introduced to the AGAMal malaria control programme and the operational implementation of IRS using the new insecticide SumiShield® 50WG.
Village leaders, community members and spray operators were given the opportunity to directly tell their story to journalists.
Journalists talking to village leaders and community members in a village in the Ashanti region, Ghana.
Press event in Accra, from left, Samuel Asiedu (Project Director, AGAMAL), David McGuire (NgenIRS Project Director, IVCC) Atsuko Hirooka (Executive Officer, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.), HE Tsutomu Himeno (Ambassador, Japan), Tina Mensah (Deputy Minister of Health), Dr Gloria J Quansah Asare (Deputy Director General, Ghana Health Services), Alexandra Cameron (Technical Manager, Unitaid) and at the podium Dr. Keziah Malm (National Malaria Programme Manager).
Links to Unitaid’s Video & Photo Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QycIfcllEsk(link is external)
https://unitaid.eu/news-blog/inside-ghanas-mosquito-squad-a-photo-story/#en(link is external)
Links to related press releases, stories and articles
https://unitaid.eu/news-blog/new-boost-to-ghanas-malaria-control-programme/(link is external)
https://spark.adobe.com/page/AUlSyLWZj2pmE/(link is external)
https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/05/09/planeta_futuro/1525853136_438091.html(link is external)
Rotation of 3GIRS insecticides in full swing
Unitaid, IVCC and Sumitomo Chemical Company announced the inclusion of the new insecticide SumiShield® 50WG, as part of the NgenIRS project. This announcement followed the prequalification listing by WHO in October 2017.
With two long-lasting IRS (3GIRS) products now available, SumiShield® 50WG and Actellic® 300CS, the pre-emptive annual rotation goal outlined in the Global Plan for Insecticide Resistance
Management in malaria vectors (GPIRM) is achievable. Bayer’s 3GIRS product, Fludora® Fusion is currently undergoing final stage trials required for WHO prequalification and we hope this 3rd long lasting product can join the NgenIRS programme in 2019. BASF´s Sylando® 240SC is under WHO-evaluation.
Funders and procurers now have the opportunity to simultaneously prevent resistance build up and affect the cost-effectiveness of IRS by adopting pre-emptive, subnational rotation strategies where appropriate. Rotating all effective and available insecticides is key as a wholesale shift from one effective long-lasting IRS product to another within the market would undermine the goals of increasing competition, reducing product cost, and the market volatility of IRS products. Experts have proposed a new strategic approach based on pre-emptive rotation of multiple 3GIRS products within a country to:
- support resistance prevention best practices;
- support stable, multi-year forecasts and
- support reduced price through competition.
Half of the NgenIRS partner countries adopted a sub-national rotation strategy for 2018, as part of their national insecticide resistance management plan. Tanzania has completed their IRS sub-national rotation campaign for 2018, Ghana and Burkina Faso are in the process of adopting this strategy and the remaining four countries will follow.
Related links:
http://www.who.int/pq-vector-control/prequalified-lists/sumishield50wg/en/(link is external)