We would want to commend Masada for their efforts at cleaning the City of Freetown. They are not there yet but if they do not get frustrated and continue with the steady zeal they are displaying now, they just might overcome and win the battle against the filth in the City.
However as the filth vs Masada battle rages on, the mosquitoes are slowly taking over the City in a very alarming way.
It was the residents of Kingtom who are close to the refuse dumping site ‘Bomeh’ who had for over the years been subjected to the swarms of mosquitoes. In this area some people do not open their windows nor do they sit outside on their verandas because the swarms of mosquitoes do not allow them. Doors and windows are almost always closed and residents are confined to spend most of their time locked indoors.
Ofcourse needless to say that ‘Wastox’ and ‘mosquito coils’ sell a lot in this area.
What is now alarming for us is the fact that the mosquitoes have not only invaded the homes, they have now entered the schools, offices and even churches. Long ago these mosquitoes only became active at night. Now they are even more active during the day than at night. If you so much as standstill in the line in the bank, or sit still in the taxi or podapoda, they will nick a bite.
They have become so proliferated that we wonder whether there is any correlation to the Masada cleaning. Is it that the Masada cleaning has disturbed the mosquitoes from the hiding places and so they have now taken to flying all around finding new places to settle and get away from the troubling cleaning exercise by Masada?
Or on the hand, do we now have a new breed of mosquitoes who are breeding more voraciously than before and are now multiplying at such an alarming rate?
We in Awoko are not scientists. Yet we would want to agree that the mosquitoes now seem to be bigger. They also seem to be more brazen in flying around and less skilful in hiding.
This is why we would call on the Ministry of Health to now check what is happening. Do we now have a new breed of mosquitoes? Is there a new strain of malaria around? How deadly is it? How resistant is it to the present drugs being used? What measures should we now employ to ensure that their rapid breeding is curtailed as soon as possible? These are all public health issues. We recognise and applaud the efforts being made to create more maternal units and equip them. The cost of our health bill and the fatality of illness in our society will not go away unless and until we address the basic public health issues about basic cleanliness in our communities. That is the only way that the health issue can be addressed. It now has to be a bottom to the top approach.
May God help Sierra Leone.
Wednesday March 04, 2014