Campaign on use of treated nets

Saturday, March 20, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 25)

By Rebecca Kwei
The Programme Manager of the National Malarial Control Programme (NMCP), Dr (Mrs) Constance Bart-Plange, has said her outfit will intensify education to encourage Ghanaians to sleep in Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) to prevent malaria.
She noted that because of the hot weather, many Ghanaians were not comfortable using ITNs and queried, “which one do you prefer? To sleep in the nets and be malaria-free or outside it and get malaria which could kill you?
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.
Dr Bart-Plange said this at a press briefing by the United Against Malaria (UAM) Partnership, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-led initiative with the goal of supporting the global fight against malaria.
The partnership involves football teams and heroes, celebrities, health and advocacy organisations, governments, corporations and personalities who have united ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to win the fight against malaria.
It is estimated that there are between 300 million and 500 million clinical cases of malaria per year, with 80 per cent of those cases in Africa. In Ghana, malaria continues to be the leading cause of death among children under five years.
Dr Bart-Plange said the World Health Organisation (WHO) Malaria Report 2009 showed that in a 2008 survey, 33 per cent of households owned an ITN, but only 19 per cent of children under five in Ghana had slept under an ITN the night before.
Dr Bart-Plange said in the past the focus was on children under five to use ITNs but now it was imperative for all Ghanaians to use the net.
She said Ghana was using all available interventions such as treatment with Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), use of ITNs and indoor residual spray to combat malaria since no one intervention would work fully.
She said partnership was also key and said the UAM initiative was a laudable idea, adding that “football unites and through the passionate voice of football, players who serve as role models will help spread the message of ITNs, pregnant women take the required Sulphadoxine Pyremithamine (SP), the message will sink down to accelerate the desire to reduce malarial cases”.
The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, said it was a social service obligation for the association to be part of the campaign “as we find the 3.2 million cases of malaria recorded each year in Ghana and the 20,000 children who die of the disease in a year totally unacceptable.”
Mentioning some actions undertaken so far with regard to the UAM, he said Black Stars used their last World Cup qualifying match with the Eagles of Mali in Kumasi to send out messages on bed net use.
He gave the assurance that “our use of the game football at all levels to promote resource generation to support the NMCP and also promote effective use of prevention and treatment tools such as ITNs, ACTs and SP for pregnant women shall not end with our participation in South Africa 2010”.
Mr Nyantakyi said the association shall sustain its efforts by involving all the national teams, the national premier league, the division one and division two league clubs and even the colts league in the UAM campaign.
He appealed to the business community to support the association to raise two million ITNs for the NMCP towards the achievement of the universal access goals.
The President of the Tanzania Football Federation, Leodegar Tenga, said between 17million and 20 million were affected by malaria with 18,000 dying annually.
He said it was important to use the World Cup tournament to spread the message, adding that “the very existence of football depends on how healthy the player is and it is imperative that African leaders take the issue of malaria seriously. Malaria can be prevented, curable and can be eradicated”.
A former captain of Uganda’s national team, the Cranes, Mr Edgar Watson Soubi, said his country was using role models of all ages to spread the message of the fight against malaria.
He said football was also a good medium to spread the malarial message since it could affect a player directly or indirectly, thereby preventing the player from playing.
The Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr George Amofah, who chaired the event, said the economic burden of the disease could not be ignored and the involvement of all stakeholders was necessary to fight malaria.
He said the totality of all the interventions available could make an impact to enable the goal of reducing malaria cases and deaths to be reduced.
The Country Director of the John Hopkins Centre for Communication Programmes — Voices Project, Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey, said three key UAM promotional materials had been developed, including the Ghana UAM Cheer song/music video, a 60-second TV spot projecting the Black Stars promoting ITN use and IPT access, a 30-second TV spot with Michael Essien and Stephen Appiah promoting ITN use, posters and banners among others.