Kumbosogo (U/E), Oct. 5, GNA - Zoomlion in the Upper East Region has designed a fumigation programme targeted at reducing the population of mosquitoes in the region.

Pursuing this under an arrangement with the Ministry of Health under its National Mosquito Control Programme (NAMCOP), Zoomlion said it was keen at addressing the mosquito menace.

Malaria leads Out Patient Department (OPD) cases in the region, amounting to about 43 per cent. This is a worrying trend for health experts in region with a disturbin= g doctor to patient ratio of about 1:3400. Mr. Joseph Atanga Awuni, Regional Vector Control Officer at the Zoomlion office, told journalists that the company would also spray unsanitary areas such as refuse dump sites and refuse container sites to ge= t rid of flies and other insects. He said the NAMCOP project considered de-ratting, where mice and rats are trapped and killed, grass cutting and weeding, de-silting of drains as part of efforts to clean the region of filth. Mr. Awuni said the programme would de-infest public toilets to reduce the population of flies. The Upper East Regional Manager for Zoomlion, Mr. Laud Mike Tagoe, sai= d the company would begin commercialization of indoor residual spraying (IRS) in addition to the NAMCOP programme which would be free.