Liberia

Spray operator outside of the home of a beneficiary.

More than a decade of civil war and conflict has weakened the Liberian health system. Malaria accounts for approximately one-third of outpatient visits and one-third of inpatient deaths.

From 2007 to 2008, IRS was conducted in refugee camps for internally displaced persons and refugees, protecting approximately 150,000 people from malaria transmission. In 2009, the President’s Malaria Initiative began supporting indoor residual spraying (IRS) in Liberia. IRS was significantly scaled up in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, Abt, with support from the President’s Malaria Initiative, sprayed 14 districts in the following 5 counties: Bong, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Montserrado, and Nimba. Due the increase in insecticide costs from switching to another class of insecticides, Liberia’s targets were reduced to only 40,000 structures in 2013. In 2014, AIRS Liberia switched its focus to entomology activities. AIRS is training local scientists to carry out entomological monitoring, building their capacity to gather data about local mosquito populations and inform malaria programs.

Preventing malaria is essential to improving the health, education, and well-being of people in Liberia.

Controlling malaria can prevent loss of income that occurs when a family member dies from malaria or misses work due to illness. In Africa, malaria costs $12 billion each year in lost economic productivity.

When children are healthy, they are more likely to attend school. Malaria causes 3-8% of all cause school absenteeism and up to 50% of readily preventable school absenteeism in Africa.

Read the Liberia PMI Country Profile to learn more about PMI’s malaria work.