Nana Boroo is Malaria Ambassador

Saturday, June 16, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 19)
By Rebecca Kwei
Hiplife musician, Nana Boroo (Nana Osei Bonsu), has urged every Ghanaian to sleep under insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria.
He said prevention was better than cure and sleeping under treated nets was a sure way to prevent malaria which was a major cause of death, especially in children and pregnant women in sub Saharan African.
Nana Boroo made the call when he was unveiled as the Malaria Ambassador at a short ceremony held at the Citizen Kofi Entertainment Centre in Accra.
Music easily carries messages across and using it as a behaviour change communication component has worked well over the years.
Thus, Nana Borro was chosen to use the medium of music to encourage people to sleep under treated nets.
The project dubbed ‘Aha yede’ — Always sleep under a treated net’- has been put together by the USAID, Promoting Malaria Prevention and Treatment (ProMPT), the Ghana Health Service and the National Malaria Control Programme.
His hit track ‘Aha yede’ has been remixed as ‘Aha yede-ntom tom be wu’ as the theme song.
Part of the lyrics of the song in English and Akan which says “Let’s come together and drive malaria away- Sleep under treated net every day” talks about the benefits of sleeping under treated nets in an interesting way.
Insecticide Treated Nets have been known to reduce mortality in children under five by about 20 per cent and malarial illnesses among children under five and pregnant women by up to 50 per cent.
A survey showed that almost every household in Ghana had an ITN but “sleeping in the ITN” was the problem.
Therefore, as the Malaria Ambassador, Nana Boroo said he would create more awareness and also intensify education to encourage Ghanaians to sleep in treated nets to prevent malaria.
“The mosquito doesn’t care where you sleep, who you sleep with or what you do when you sleep. The best way to prevent the mosquito bite which results in malaria is to sleep under the treated net,” Nana Boroo emphasised.
Recently at the launch of six different reports published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership highlighting the progress and impact made in the fight against malaria, it came to light that in the past 10 years 736,700 children in 34 African countries had been saved from malaria through the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying (IRS), effective medicines and preventive treatment during pregnancy.
Within the same period, household distribution and ownership of ITNs increased significantly in sub-Saharan Africa from three per cent in 2000 to 42 per cent in 2010.
The Coordinators of the project, Ian Tweedie and Maurice Oquaye, who engaged guests at the event in a pop quiz, said one person died from malaria in Ghana every three hours.
They said severe malaria was also a major cause of permanent brain damage and physical disability.
Treated nets which has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) give double protection by preventing the mosquito from landing on you and the insecticide in it repels or kills the mosquito when they land on the net.