The Rivers Government has said that aerial spraying of biolarvicides in swampy areas and river edges in Port Harcourt would commence this month.

Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker said at a news conference to mark the 2011 World Malaria Day in Port Harcourt last Wednesday that aerial spraying was crucial to successful implementation of the biolarvicides programme.

He explained that the delay in the aerial spraying was because the team needed to cover reasonable parts of Port Harcourt.

“The spraying had been done in many parts of Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, since the programme was officially flagged-off few weeks ago, after that the team will enter other local government areas,’’ he said.

According to the commissioner, all residents of Port Harcourt are to be informed that low flying aircrafts will soon spray swampy areas and river edges across the state.

“Everybody should be aware that there is no cause for people to panic when you see all these aircraft,’’ he said.

The commissioner, who reviewed the activities of the ministry in combating malaria, said that 3.2 million pieces of long-lasting insecticidal treated mosquito nets had been distributed free to residents of the state.

He also said that  government purchased and distributed 3.2 million doses of ACTs, 980,000 doses of sulphadoxine pyimenthamine and purchased six vehicles for malaria control activities.

Parker said that a baseline survey had been carried out in nine local government areas to determine the level of occurrence of the disease.

He said that in spite of efforts by government, a lot still needed to be done in tackling the challenge of malaria.

“Malaria is a disease without borders. In Nigeria, over N132 billion accounts for annual economic loss due to malaria related problems and the disease has remained a major public health problem,’’ he said.

Parker said: “Malaria is responsible for about 29 per cent of estimated deaths among children, 11 per cent among pregnant women and 60 per cent of disease reported in public health facilities and everybody should join in the fight if it must be won”.

Parker advised people to be conscious of environmental cleanliness, adding that the ministry had lined up other key activities to sensitise people on the control of malaria.

It would be recalled that the state in 2009, signed a contract with the Cuban Government to build a bio-larvidal plant for the production of biolarvicides in the state, in addition to spraying biolarvicides.

Biolarvicides is a fumigation method popularly used in Latin America and parts of Europe for the elimination of mosquitoes, which cause malaria.