BY: KALD I Voltaonlinegh.com |
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Volta region is expected to distribute Long Last Insecticide Nets (LLIN) to households in the region, as part of measures to sustain the fight against malaria.
The exercise, which forms part of the National malaria control programme, would see a total of 1,083,499 long-lasting insecticides treated bed nets being distributed among a population of 1,950,299 in 487,575 households across all 18 municipalities and districts of the region.
Ahead of the exercise, the Regional Health Directorate held a stakeholders engagement in Ho on Tuesday, where they announced modalities for free distribution.
Dr. Kwesi Djokoto, Deputy Regional Director – Public Health, said activities will commence on Monday October 25, 2021 with registration and validation of households, using digital devices.
He explained, the campaign would comprise of seven days of registration in October and another seven days of distribution between the last week of November and the first week of December. The period between the two phases would be used for the necessary mobilization of logistics to the various districts and communities.
According to him, the Point Mass Distribution Campaign was a revised campaign strategy by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and partners using the universal coverage approach (1 net for 2 persons) of distributing LLINs to the general public, especially at the household level.
‘The use of insecticide treated bed nets have been found to be a cost-effective approach to break the transmission of the malaria parasite from mosquitoes to humans,’ he stated, adding that, the upcoming mass distribution campaign a would phase out bed nets that were distributed in March and April 2018 in the Region, which had a three-year effective cycle.
The Deputy director therefore called for active participation of all stakeholders in the campaign to ensure a 100 percent coverage.
Success story
Touching on the success of previous campaigns, Mr. Roland Glover, Regional Malaria Focal Person said the exercise coupled with other interventions, have reduced the incidence of malaria cases among the general population, especially pregnant women and children under five years over period.
He said the campaign has achieve more than 90 percent coverage of LLIN among pregnant women and under 5 children, which resulted in the reduction of under 5 mortality to 0.01 percent.
Mr. Glover also disclosed that, due to the sustained campaigns, two districts in the region, namely South Tongu and Hohoe Municipality have attained malaria pre-elimination status, –Â a stage where the incidence of malaria is approaching elimination stage.
He was therefore optimistic that, the continuous patronage of the various interventions by all stakeholders would achiveve desired results.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
