Plan International Liberia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and partners, following 12 months of preparation, launched the Liberia 2018 long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLIN) mass distribution campaign in a joint event with the commemoration of World Malaria Day (WMD-2018) on April 25, 2018 to distribute 2.6 million nets across the 15 counties in Liberia from April 26 to May 6, 2018. The 1st Lady of the Republic of Liberia, Madam Clar Weah launched the campaign and issued the 1st net to a beneficiary in Monrovia.
The aim of the net campaign is to achieve ‘universal coverage’ defined, in Liberia as one net per two persons with a maximum of 3 nets per household. The hope is that at least 80% of the population sleep under a net (LLIN) every night, especially pregnant women and children under 5. This intervention will not only protect the people sleeping under LLIN, but it will also contribute to an overall reduction of malaria transmission.
Proper use of Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs) is one of the most effective ways of preventing malaria. It can reduce the number of uncomplicated malaria episodes or cases in areas of high malaria transmission, as it is in Liberia, by half (50%), and have an even bigger impact in areas of medium or lower transmission, as it is in the southern part of Africa. ITNs have also been shown to reduce childhood mortality by up to a quarter (25%). Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLIN) are nets treated with insecticide during the manufacturing process. They do not require re-treatment and remain viable for a period of three to five years.
“I am very happy to have received this mosquito net because all the nets I have in my home have holes on them, and can no longer prevent mosquitoes. In fact, this is going to save me lots of money, as I was just planning to buy new net if the distribution process would have delayed,” Patricia Anthony, a resident of Saclepea, Saclepea-Mah District in Nimba County said. She was referring to the fixed site mass distribution of mosquito nets to households in Saclepea-Mah District, as part of the nationwide mass distribution of LLIN.
For Lawrence Dahn, a single parent and father of four children who is also residing in the Saclepea Comprehensive Health Center community, said he will sleep under the three mosquito nets he has just received. The man believed to be in his earlier 40s noted that the advantage with the nets is that they are long-lasting and well treated. “The net will help protect my children and all other persons against malaria,” he averred.
Patricia and Lawrence, mentioned above, were beneficiaries of the mosquito net distribution exercise in the central part of Liberia.
The LLIN mass distribution campaign was funded by The Global Fund under the Liberia Malaria grant. According to the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), malaria prevalence is at 31% for now in Liberia (LMIS 2016). Patricia Diggs, one of Plan International Liberia field staff assigned in Nimba County, like many people in Liberia, is positive that the mosquito net mass distribution campaign will further help to reduce malaria prevalence in the county and Liberia as a whole.
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