In Uganda, many students spend their formative years afflicted by malaria – a debilitating disease that can cause chronic anemia, headaches, and other symptoms that impair their educational progress. A school in a high transmission area with 1,000 students can easily record 1200 or more cases of malaria in a year.
Pilgrim Protect works with schools to protect students from malaria by reducing the mosquitoes that spread it, by limiting student-mosquito contact, and by educating students about prevention technques.
As a student leader and S6 candidate at Beacon of HopeSchool, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of the PilgrimProtect program.
Prior to the spraying, malaria was a persistent issue that often caused students to miss valuable learning time and struggle to keep up (me inclusive). However, the spraying of our classrooms and dormitories significantly reduced the number of malaria cases among the student body.
This has been a tremendous relief. We no longer have to worry about falling ill and missing crucial lessons. Instead, we can focus our energy on learning, growing, and reaching our full potential.
As a student leader, I have seen the positive effects of the Pilgrim Protect program extend beyond the classroom. Students are healthier, more focused, and better able to participate in extracurricular activities and leadership roles. This has fostered a stronger sense of community and camaraderie among thestudent body.
I am deeply grateful for Beacon of Hope and its partnership with Pilgrim Africa!
Many rural schools in high transmission areas with pressed finances don’t budget for extensive vector control activities despite suffering a high burden of malaria. Pilgrim Africa offers to do the first term of spray and protection services for free, on condition the school partners to share de-identified information on student malaria cases before and after the activities, and to undergo a business case examination of the cost of illness vs. the cost of control. In subsequent sprays, schools contribute to operational costs as they are able.
Under Pilgrim Protect, we take a proactive approach to community protection, with a strong focus on primary and secondary schools where we implement indoor residual spraying (IRS) and other prevention activities. IRS is the single most effective intervention in Uganda for the prevention of malaria, preventing up to 90% of cases. Pilgrim Protect uses insecticides approved by WHO and Uganda’s Ministry of Health under Uganda’s Insecticide Resistance Management plan. Other elements of the program include distribution of malaria prevention educational materials, formation of school malaria clubs and activities aimed at creating malaria youth champions, fostering resilient communities and ensuring a healthier, sustainable future for everyone. In some schools, preventive treatment is offered at the beginning of each term.
Malaria will never end in Uganda until those most affected in rural areas can take an active part in the fight. IRS is especially cost effective in schools. Students in boarding schools sleep many to a room, and in high transmission areas, cases of malaria can outnumber students and constitute a large expense. Schools participating in Pilgrim Protect are invited to compare the costs of prevention with the costs of illness, both health and financial, and consider budgeting consistently for malaria prevention.
The cost of spraying varies by school, by numbers of students sleeping per room, and by the size of dorm rooms, between 1 and 2 USD per student. The malaria educational elements of Pilgrim Protect, which are done only once in each school, cost an additional 1 USD per student. Pilgrim Africa board members generously subsidize the overhead associated with the program, so all donations go directly to program implementation in schools. Please choose "Pilgrim Protect" at the drop-down menu in the link below.
Historically, Uganda has the world’s highest recorded malaria transmission intensities. Even today, in certain parts of the country, an overwhelming number of Anopheles mosquitoes are capable of transmitting malaria. Pilgrim Protect focuses on mosquito control and prevention of human-mosquito contact. Mosquitoes are the disease vectors of malaria, carrying the malaria parasite to humans. The control of disease-bearing vectors is called vector control. Vector control for malaria seeks to reduce contact between humans and mosquitoes in a variety of ways:
IRS is the spraying of insecticides on the interior walls of sleeping spaces. Many if not most anopheline species carrying the malaria parasite prefer to bite sleeping people at night. Once dry, the insecticides do not pose safety risks to humans and continue to kill and repel mosquitoes for months, with the duration depending on the kind of insecticide. In Uganda, consistent IRS with Syngenta’s Actellic, a next generation WHO - approved insecticide, has been shown to reduce malaria infections in children by as much as 90% in high transmission areas, where IRS is particularly effective.
LLINs protect sleepers from being bitten by mosqitoes in two ways-- by presenting a physical barrier, and by repelling and killing mosquitoes that land on nets. They provide protection for about two years, after which time insecticide levels are low and in a village setting, most nets develop holes. As long as they are intact and correctly used, LLINs can provide barrier protection in any transmission intensity, but have differential impact depending on the insecticides used. Currently, the LLINs with highest impact are those using two active ingredients called "dual AI", of which there are several types.
Where house structure supports their use, window and door screens provide a physical barrier to mosquitoes and work during the day as well as at night. Protective clothing can help prevent daytime or evening mosquito bites.
Larval source management refers to management of mosquito larvae, through one of four methods:
Habitat modification: a permanent alteration to the environment, e.g. land reclamation;
Habitat manipulation: a recurrent activity, e.g. flushing of streams;
Larviciding: the regular application of biological or chemical insecticides to water;
Biological control: the introduction of natural predators into water bodies.
The application of larvicides in particular is most effective when targeted to breeding places with a high density of larvae, so should be informed by ongoing surveillance of mosquito populations.
Some species of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes bite during the day when it is too warm to wear protective clothing. Topical repellents can aid in preventing mosquito bites. Spatial repellants, a lively area of research and development in 2024, can diffuse from small devices placed indoors in a home or business and remain active for many months.
Another way to prevent mosquito bites at night is to live in a home with a “modern” roof and walls, as opposed to traditional thatched roof housing which provides many entry and resting places for mosquitoes, or to add eave screening or eave tubes to provide a barrier to mosquito entry.