Zambia: The Zambia Ministry of Health has allocated over one million Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) to Muchinga Province in a quest to eliminate malaria cases. Many parts of the country have reported malaria cases in the previous months.
ITNs will serve as one of the preventive measures, especially in the regions that are most adversely affected by mosquito-borne disease. Provincial Health Director, David Silweya applauded the government’s effort to protect the people of the province.
Dr Silweya announced that the mosquito nets are expected to arrive in the province by next week. Afterwards, the various authorities will take responsibility for their distribution to all eight districts of the province.
Meanwhile, Dr Silweya said the Ministry of Health in the province is currently consolidating data that was collected during the just-ended registration exercise. This gesture of the authorities seeks to ensure that the number corresponds to the number of nets that will be distributed.
He stated that all the necessary steps to ensure a smooth and successful distribution exercise have been put in place. These include the training of staff and registration of households combating malaria fever.
The national ministry of health has been working hard to combat the mosquito-borne fever. In the previous weeks, the ministry has convened several meetings to discuss a plan of action to protect the people.
Dr Silweya said the distribution exercise of nets this time around will be based on the number of occupants per household. This is different from the earlier approach of only giving one or two nets to a single household. This way, the people will be more protected against the insect as the number of ITNs will be according to the number of rooms in a household.
Dr Silweya noted that the distribution of long-lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets in Muchinga will be the main malaria intervention the government will undertake in the province.
He added that the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) exercise will also be conducted but only in a few selected areas.
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