Mosquito net abuse should be checked
The Ministry of Health is set to distribute 27,270,933 long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to all Ugandans. The nets are a donation from the Global Fund (GF), The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), UNITAID and Against Malaria Foundation (AMF).
These consignments have been received by National Medical Stores (NMS) on behalf of the Ministry of Health and will be distributed free of charge by NMS.
But there have been several complaints that some communities received hard and rough mosquito nets during the previous campaign. Note that during the forthcoming #NetCampaign2020, NMS will distribute only long-lasting, durable, soft and smooth mosquito nets. Malaria is endemic in about 95 per cent of Uganda and continues to be the leading killer disease.
According to the Ministry of Health, there was malaria upsurge across the country realised in June 2019 due to a prolonged rainy season, raising malaria incidences by more than 400,000 cases with a 40 per cent increase from one million cases in 2018.
The rise in cases of malaria has since affected nearly half of the country with about 65 districts being affected - mostly those in the high-burden regions of Busoga, Teso, West Nile, northern Uganda and Karamoja Sub-region. Seasonally, high number of malaria cases occur during the period between June and July due to rainy season.
In addition, many families have been rendered vulnerable to climate change effects, arising from the unpredictable rainy spells that have at times stretched beyond the periods thus posing likelihood of malaria incidences throughout the year.
At least 27.7 per cent of inpatient deaths among children below five years of age have also been attributed to malaria.
As part of the efforts to control malaria, the government and development partners have been giving out free mosquito-treated nets to all households across the country in order to reduce malaria prevalence.
Besides, approaches to mitigate the malaria public health concern have not fully utilised the family-based health promotion model and there is still a challenge in homesteads that continue to grapple with increased incidences of malaria and other illnesses claiming lives of both children and adults.
This is because there is limited access to education and information as well as community sensitisation at family levels about practices that have undermined proper use of mosquito nets, environmental care and hygiene in respective communities which increases community vulnerability to malaria.
Efforts have been made by both the government and some development partners to facilitate communities in embracing behavioral change and good malaria control practices.
However, there are identified gaps that need to be addressed in building community capacities, including empower them to become resilient in coping with major health challenges, especially the malaria epidemic.
Some Ugandans are unable to buy new and treated mosquito net to replace aging ones acquired free of charge. There are also wrongly held beliefs among the population that a mosquito net is not worth spending valuable time on to repair for reuse. Many people have preferred continuing to sleep under torn mosquito nets.
Cases of some community members using mosquito nets for trapping white ants, fish, keeping chicks, etc, are common. This unchecked abuse of mosquito nets is partly responsible for spiraling of malaria cases and deaths. It is our responsibility to ensure that these mosquito nets are properly used to prevent malaria.
Mr Odong is the public relations officer, National Medical Stores (NMS).
