A news crew from Al Jazeera television recently visited MRC The Gambia in Fajara and Basse following the story of MRCG’s RooPfs study.
The study aims to see if malaria can be reduced by improving existing houses. The owners of 800 traditional mud houses have been enrolled, 400 of these houses had the roof changed to metal, the eaves filled and screened doors and windows added in 2015/2016. The remaining 400 will have the improvements in 2018 if they wish. In every house, a child is followed for malaria and mosquito entry is measured using light-traps in some. The team visited Sare Garaba, where the village health worker from Badari, Pateh Bah, Field Coordinator and Dawda Dahaba, Nurse Field Assistant posted to the village, welcomed them. Filming began at the selected compound with a RooPfs modified house. The husband and wife had stayed back from farming and many sequences were filmed of them moving around and inside their metal roof house, with bed and net also filmed.

On the visit to the Fajara main site, the crew interviewed MRCG Unit Director, Professor Umberto D'Alessandro, about the project and the work of MRCG more broadly in the area of malaria eradication. The team filmed extensively at the Fajara site including its laboratories.

The video entitled The Gambia: Scientists find new ways to fight malaria was featured on Al Jazeera on Thursday 20 July 2017. The video mainly highlights our RooPfs study and the recent reduction in malaria which has been largely achieved by a massive scale-up of vector control, with long-lasting insecticidal nets and indoor residual spraying.  The video also features interviews with MRCG personnel, participants and has footage of our facilities, staff at work and community activities.

Watch the video on Aljazeera at http://video.aljazeera.com/channels/eng/videos/the-gambia%3A-scientists…