News - Benin

The city of Parakou in the north of Benin got its Mosquito Zika Training Workshop

The conference room of the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Parakou was the venue of the training on Saturday, August 18, 2018. This trainer of trainers training workshop (country level) on the Zika mosquito in Benin was the third of a series of six CMTs funded by the Department of States and led by the GLOBE program.  A total of 25 participants were present. The training was conducted on site by two GLOBE Zika Master Trainers, Mr. Hippolyte AGOSSOU and Wadoud BOUSSARI.  

At the opening Mr AGOSSOU welcome the audience. He recalled the context of the training and presented the training agenda. Participants were given the opportunity to express their expectations which revolved around a better knowledge of the GLOBE Program, the GLOBE Zika Education and Prevention project, and the Mosquito Habitat Mapper app.

Mr. BOUSSARI took the floor and made a presentation on the GLOBE program, its vision, objectives, as well as its organization and different protocols.

This was followed by a presentation on Mosquito biology and mosquito types.

Participants were also introduced to the GLOBE Zika project "Encouraging citizens to prevent and observe mosquito-related threats", and its different stages. They were also introduced to the use of the GLOBE OBSERVER application, Mosquito Habitat Mapper component, and data report.

After lunch the mosquito data collection kits were distributed to participants and the presentation of the different components of the kit was made. Participants were sent to the field to search for water points containing mosquito larvae and to take samples. They went through all the steps in collecting mosquito data with the application and the collected data was sent to the GLOBE platform. Finally all participants completed the post-training survey.

The session ended at 6:15 pm with a coffee break offered to the participants with their satisfaction and commitment  to work towards the elimination of mosquito habitats and the data report to the GLOBE platform. They expressed their engagement through the LMT (Local Mosquito Training) training they will have to organize in the coming weeks.

Country Mosquito Training in Porto Novo

On June 14, 2018, a training session on the zika protocol was held at Lycée Technique Commercial of  Porto-Novo, the capital city of Benin Republic. Under the leadership of Mr. Ylliass Destin LAWANI, GLOBE Assistant country coordinator, assisted by Dr. Léonce HOUNGBEDJI, this first of a series of six trainings within the framework of the “GLOBE project: Engaging Citizens in the Forecasting and Observation of Mosquito Threats”, was attended by 31 participants (5 Mosquito Master Trainers who attended the Regional Mosquito Training held in Togo earlier - 9 students - and 17 participants). Participants had been trained about mosquitoes, where they breed, the illnesses they can spread and how to use the GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper to fight them. Action plans for the Local Mosquitoes Trainings had also been discussed.

A brief opening ceremony at the beginning of the training was attended by a strong rectoral team led by Mr. Justinien HOUNKPATIN, Principal of Lycée Technique Commercial of Porto Novo, who expressed in his opening speech, his pride in hosting such a training and thanked the GLOBE Program for the honor it gives to his institution by choosing his school as the starting point for the 6 training sessions to be held as part of the project. He asked Mr. LAWANI to convey his thanks to all the partners involved in this global project. Finally, Mr. HOUNKPATIN indicated all his personal commitment and that of the administration he heads, to support all the initiatives of the GLOBE program in Benin in general, and in particular those of this project. Finally, he urged participants to show determination and availability for the success of the all-day training.

This was followed by an official donation of the school Mosquito kit to the principal by Mr. Ylliass LAWANI, thus giving the top for the distribution of the kits to the participants.

At the end of the various presentations that followed, the Mosquito Habitat Mapper application was installed on the phones and tablets of the participants who were trained in collecting, recording and sending the data collected on their samples to the NASA database.  To end the session, participants were submitted to the post-training survey.

This day ended around 6pm, with a courtesy visit to the principal. The authority expressed its full satisfaction with the conduct of the event and reaffirmed its unwavering support for ongoing and future actions under the GLOBE program banner.

A Mosquito Training Workshop to celebrate World Mosquito day in Benin

On World Mosquito Day (20/08/2018), a Country Mosquito Training took place in the Laboratory of Genetics, Horticulture and Seed Science (GBioS) of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences (FSA) of the University of Abomey - Calavi, Benin. This trainer of trainers training workshop (country level) on the Zika mosquito in Benin was the second of six CMTs series funded by Globe Zika project led by the GLOBE program.  A total of 25 participants (doctors, agronomists, journalists, researchers, students) were present. The training was conducted on site by two GLOBE Zika Master trainers, Dr. Nicodème FASSINOU HOTEGNI and Mr. DEGBEY Christophe. Other trainers such as Mr. Rachidi FRANCISCO and Mr. Léonce HOUNGBEDJI were also present.  

At the opening Dr Nicodème FASSINOU HOTEGNI took the floor to welcome the audience. He recalled the context of this training by introducing infectious diseases such as malaria, which kills more than AIDS in Benin.

Participants were given the opportunity to express their expectations of the training. The most common expectations revolved around a better knowledge of the disease, the vector responsible for the disease, the pathogen agent and existing control methods.  After presenting the training program, Dr. FASSINOU made a presentation on the GLOBE program, its vision, objectives, as well as its organization and different protocols.

This was followed by a presentation on Mosquito biology and mosquito types. This presentation was given by Mr. Rachidi Francisco, entomologist and research assistant at the GBioS Laboratory. This presentation addressed the different types of mosquitoes, namely: Aedes, Anopheles, Culex while emphasizing the Zika which belongs to the genus Aedes, the conditions necessary for their proliferation, and the morphology of mosquitoes. It has been shown that the part that differentiates these mosquitoes is the siphon (playing a respiratory role) that is absent in the genus Culex. Emphasis was also placed on the adult form of the mosquito and how to recognize them. Indeed, the mosquito of the genus Zika has a black shape with white spots and differs clearly from the others. At the end of the presentation on mosquitoes, Dr. Léonce HOUNGBEDJI insisted on three fundamental elements: the pathogen, the vector agent and the subject in whom the virus is likely to cause the disease in understanding the transmission of the Zika disease.

Participants were then introduced to the pathogens of the different species and the high prevalence areas of the different species. It should be noted from this presentation that West Africa is an area with a high prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases. Two species of Aedes, namely A. aegypti and A. albopitus, are to be retained and both species develop in containers. The diseases transmitted by these two species are yellow fever, zika, chikungunwa, dengue fever, etc. With regard to Zika, Benin is in an area of high prevalence and the modes of transmission are sexual and bloodborne.

 After a question and answer session, a 20 minutes video about the Zika virus was shown to the audience. The video showed the emergence of the disease in Brazil, the manifestations of the disease through the damage it causes to children's brains (microcephaly), the transmission of the virus through blood from parents to children and the different control methods, especially chemical and physical control. 

After the video screening, the GLOBE Zika project "Encouraging citizens to prevent and observe mosquito-related threats" was presented by Dr Nicodème FASSINOU HOTEGNI. In addition to the objectives he presented the different stages of the project with the'T1 trainers' who have already received training at regional level, who in turn will train people at national level who are the'T2 trainers' who in turn are eligible to train people at local level'T3 trainers'. Then he discussed NASA's role in mosquito research. After presenting NASA's various activities related to the environment, climate, meteorology and its involvement with GLOBE, he went on to identify and eliminate larvae, the various research questions addressed by GLOBE, as well as the online training available. 

After lunch the mosquito data collection kits were distributed to participants and the presentation of the different components of the kit was made by Mr DEGBEY Christophe. Then participants were sent to the field to search for water points containing mosquito larvae and to take samples. This exercise lasted 90 minutes in a heavy rain! Back from the field Dr Nicodème spoke about how to use the GLOBE OBSERVER application to report data collected from the field, and on the GLOBE website. All participants went through all the steps in collecting mosquito data with the application and the collected data was sent to the GLOBE platform. Finally, all participants completed the post-training evaluation form.