NAIROBI, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan on Wednesday announced plans to launch the use of biolarvicides in managing malaria cases in the country.
Sicily Kariuki, cabinet secretary for health, said that the malaria vector control project will be launched before the end of April.
"The implementation of this project will start in eight malaria prone counties in western Kenya once necessary administrative procedures are completed," Kariuki told journalists in Nairobi.
She said that Kenya is resorting to biolarvicides, a method whereby liquid larvicide products are applied directly to water using backpack sprayers and truck or aircraft-mounted sprayers due to the increased cases of malaria in the region.
In applying the method, health experts may also use tablet, pellet, granular, and briquette formulations of larvicides to breeding areas.
Kariuki said that with an additional use of larvicide, an insecticide that is specifically targeted against the larval life stage of an insect, Kenya intend to reduce the number of cases and deaths of populations.
She noted that officials will target larvae in the breeding habitat before they can mature into adult mosquitoes and disperse.
"This method is aimed at treating breeding habitats to help reduce the adult mosquito population in the regions prone to malaria epidemic," she added.
