NMCP to distribute 2.6m insecticide mosquito nets

In an effort to control the widespread of Malaria disease in Liberia, the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health (MOH) with support from Plan International Global Fund announces mass distribution of 2.6 million insecticide treated mosquito nets in 2018.

The Deputy Chief of Party for Plan International Global Fund Project, Emmanuel R. Konoe, who made the disclosure here Tuesday, 19 December in a media briefing says the campaign under banner, “Liberia 2018 Long Lasting Insecticide treated Net” (LLIN) aims at reducing Malaria Disease across the country by 50 percent in the coming year.

Official launch starts March 2018 and is a joint project between the Ministry of Health and Plan International Global Fund with an objective to create sensitization and fight Malaria Disease in Liberia.
Also speaking, the Coordinator at the National Malaria Control Program, Mr. Daniel V. Somah explains that each household will receive three mosquito nets during the distribution process.

He encourages the general public to take advantage of the exercise in order to be safe of malaria, disclosing that the distribution will begin early January up to March 2018.

He stresses that using the media to sensitize the public will help ordinary Liberians to preclude malaria by taking advantage of mosquito bed nets. According to him, his organization and partners have so far distributed over four million nets throughout Liberia since 2007, while in 2015 the national malaria control program distributed 2.8 million nets through its universal mass campaign.

Somah continues that between 2015 and 2016, over 260,347 nets were also distributed at health facilities across the country. According to the U.S.-based Center for Disease Control (CDC) Malaria is spread by the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito.

Victims of the disease often experience fever, chills, and flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may develop severe complications and die.  In 2016 an estimated 216 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 445,000 people died, mostly children in the African Region. About 1,700 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the United States each year with majority of cases found in travelers and immigrants returning from countries where malaria transmission occurs, many from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

By Ethel A. Tweh-Editing by Jonathan Browne