Detailed description of the activities of the two main units of the programme (VCU and EPI)

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANT6 COI\iTR0L PR0GIU$.'[,IE RIVXR. BAS]N ARFJ, OI(CHOCfilCIASIS IN Tt{D VOLTA EXPERT AD\rISOrtY COII,IITTEE tr'ourth session -Eor.A.tle-r_-?-6_:lA-S-ept*e::r-b-e-r-]9p1 ocP/:r11IC.4 riF" n0c"1 DtrThIIED DtrSCIiIPTION 0F Tlm ACTI.trITIES 0F TLE TiiO I"AIli UNITS OF I]I{E P11CGRA],1I,IE (VCXi AM NTT) 1" \rECToR COiif'ROL UNrr (VCU) The Vector Control Unit und.ertakes all the vector control, evaluation and. research activities and. conprises tlrree divisions: - Division of Aerial 0perations, lrhich is responsible for all vector control activities ';rhich so far have been carried. outin principle W neekly aerj'al- appllcation of larvicid.esj - Division of Entomolo3'i-ca1 Evaluation of vector control activities which r.rndertakes the continuing surveillance of breeding sites, catches and. d.issections of blackflies, ancl calculation of the intensities of transmission; - Divislon of App1ied Research and Staff Training. VCU applies, essentially, tl,'o criteria in its evaluation activities: - Arurual Siting llate (AEt) = theoreticaL ar:nual- nurnber of blackfly bites per man and. per year. - Annual Transmission Potential (ATP) = theoreti-cal anmral number of infective -0-.*v_o-!4!.u-s. larrrae received. per man ancl 1:er )rear. In fact, Yffi considers a zone to bet;under controli' if the: In ord.er to carry ou-t its d"uties successfulll., VCU has a staff strength of more than 6C0, of r.rhom about l0 are professionals, and a buciget which represents about tlvo-thj-rds of tlrat of OCP as a whole" -2 - The Aerial 0perations Divj.sion, whi.ch covers a hyd.rological netvrork of some 181000 1or, uses, d,epending on the season, 6 to ! helicopters and.1 or 2 fixed.-wing ai.rcraft all specially equippcd. and made available by' an aerial cormercial company under a contractual agreement; it uraintains a networlc of some one hundred. fuel and. insecticid.e caehes scattered. over the whole of the treated, axea (7641000 Io2). The Entomological Evalual;ion Division employs about 9G/o of the staff of YCU distributed. between headquarters (Ouagadougou) and 6 sectors(Ba.urako, Bouakd, Bobo-Dioulasso, Kara, Parak6u, famaie), each d.irected by entcmologists, rnrhich in turn are su-bdivid.ed. into in al]- 24 sub-sectors(Banako {, Sobo-Dioulasso 2, Bouak6 J, I{ara J, Parakou {, Tamale {, plusthat of Nianey and Ouagadougou, attached. to OCP HQ) regrouped within two zones. All the staff of these bases are nationals of the ParticipatingCountries. The sub-sectors, which are basic evaluation urrits, usually have a medical entomologr teckmician, who is the sub-sector chief, a laboratory assistant, a rad.io operator/typist, an assistant nechan:ic, four drivers, J vector collectors and tr.lo watchmen, i.e. no:mal1y 1J people. Each sector 1Sua11y-has, in add.ition to the above, about twelve more gualified. staff. Three hund.red. eatehing points, scattered over tbe 24 sub-sectors, are monitored. either once a week, fortnightly, or occasionally only; every week hund.red.s of monitoring breed.ing sites are treated. and several dozens of water-gauges are read in the whole Progralrmne area. During the dry season the sub-sector teams und.ertake also the ground. treatroent of the persS-stent breed,ing sites when tlreir number d"oes not r+arzant the use of aircraft. All the sub-sectors have permanent rad.io links with each other and. with Ouagadougou for the transr,lission of information and. results which are collected and. ana\rsed at the end. of every week for the planning of the aerial operations (dosages, treatment points and. circuits) of the following week. Each sub-sector has a base equi.pped with a transmitter-receiver ::ad.io, a generator, a frid.ge, a d.eep-freezer, a microscope, baslc office and laboratory equipnent, a smal1 workshop and 4 vehicles three of which are all-weather mod.els. fhe Applied. Research }ivision has about JO staff members most of whcm are engaged. in the preparati-on and trial of new larvicides; it also coordinates and. supervises studies on blackfly vectors in the sectors, coord.irrates contractual agreements with institutions in the Programme area and the rec:rritment of consultants for specific applied. research or other research works of operational interest to the Progrannqe. This d.ivision is also in charge of the supervision and coord.ination of hydrobiological monitoring as well as the eontinuous training of new staff or the specialization of senior personnel from either the Particip,atingCountries, OCP or elsewhere. 72. EprDm{rotocrcAl EvAruArroN uNrr (urr) The Epidemiological Evaluation Unit is ::esponsible for the medical and trnrasitological assessment of the results of the VCU activities. Itj-s mad.e up of three teaus all of r,rhich ere based. at the hdadquarters ofthe PrograJnroe: - 2 Wrasitological tear'ls - 1 ophthalmological team The teal'rs are in charge of the exam:ination of the rrillages in thePrograrrne area which have been selected. according to certain established. criteria, especially their stability and hcmogeneity. they collect data which enable the d.efinition of criteria such asprerralence, ocular load. and" mortality of 0qchocerca volrnrlus females. EPr presently monitors uB villages according to two types of evaluation: 1) Sirople erraluation which includ.es the following activities: - complete census of the population of the village - skin snips - measu.re of binocular visual acuity 2) Detailed. evaluation vrhich, in ad.d.ition'to the activities of siraple evaluation, includes : - a thorough medical exarni.natj-on - a comprete ophtiralmologicar examination with an eye by eye vi_sual acuity - the measuring of weight and height In addition to these activities, ffI und.ertakes applied resea^rch.