Bed Nets Treated in Africa to Prevent Malaria
We’ve really got to learn to appreciate what we have, for other people not only lack the right mattress to sleep comfortably; they only have bed nets smelling with insecticide to be able to sleep without worry. And what they worry about isn’t just bed bugs but disease causing insects.
The Global Fund says insecticide-treated bed nets are one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent malaria transmission.
Recently published studies show a combination of bed nets and treatment can reduce malaria transmission by as much as 90 percent in areas with high coverage rates.
Executive director of the Global Fund, Michel Kazatchkine, tells VOA that Zanzibar has just achieved this goal and other countries in Africa also are making significant progress.
“For example, in the southern provinces of Zambia, we now have seen a decrease by 90 percent in malaria deaths between 2001 and 2006,” he said. “In Eritrea, despite the political situation, a 70 percent decline of malaria cases since 2001. In a number of pilot districts in Tanzania where bed nets are distributed and ACT’s are widely given, a decline by over 50 percent in under-five mortality has been observed.”
Dr. Kazatchkine says many countries have reached 60 percent coverage of families. He says mortality or morbidity of small children and pregnant women is significantly reduced in countries that achieve this threshold.
He says countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda have dramatically increased the delivery of bed nets through Global Fund financing.
Via VOA News
Tags: bed-space, bed_bugs, bed_nets, comfortable-mattress, MATTRESS News, no-mattress, sleep-areas, sleeping-on-mattress
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