By Christabel Ligami
Posted Saturday, April 20 2013 at 18:38
IN SUMMARY
- However, the project is facing challenges after it recently emerged that nearly half of those who received the nets use them for purposes other than protecting themselves from mosquitoes.
Recent surveys conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania show that in the lakeside region for example, people are converting the insecticides treated mosquito nets (ITNs) to catch rasrineabola fish known locally as omena.
Malaria prevalence in East Africa has dropped substantially thanks to the free supply of treated mosquito nets, but improper use is threatening these gains, new data shows.
National surveys conducted in the region show that the parasite prevalence among children under five years of age declined from 80 per cent in 2001 to 27 per cent in 2010.
The gains were achieved under the stewardship of governments with support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) through the distribution of free mosquito treated nets particularly in endemic zones.
However, the project is facing challenges after it recently emerged that nearly half of those who received the nets use them for purposes other than protecting themselves from mosquitoes.
Recent surveys conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania show that in the lakeside region for example, people are converting the insecticides treated mosquito nets (ITNs) to catch rasrineabola fish known locally as omena.
The nets are also cut into pieces and converted into bath sponges. Others use them to confine chicken so that they do not wander into farms and destroy crops, and for scaring away birds from plantations.
A recent study conducted in Kwale County in Kenya’s south coast by researchers from Kenyatta University and the Centre for Global Health and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, US showed that there is a need to replace ITNs bi – annually even with proper maintenance and repairs.
Scientist say the disease could be eliminated in five years if everyone in malaria endemic areas slept under bed nets.
“If just 65 per cent used the nets, high compliance rate eradication would take 22 years,” said Jessica Cohen, assistant professor of global health at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“But if the use of bed nets fell to 50 per cent, prevalence of the disease would start rising again, to 5 per cent from 2 per cent in just three months. If the use of bed nets fell to 35 per cent, it would skyrocket to 18 per cent in just three months.