Campaign on treated bednets launched

An awareness campaign on the use of Insecticide Treated Bednets (ITNs) was launched at the weekend in Nigeria's capital Abuja, 'ThisDay' newspaper reported. The campaign aims at encouraging the use of ITNs to protect families, especially children and women from malaria, the paper stated. Launching the campaign, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Edugie Abebe said that a four-pronged strategy has been adopted. It includes promoting awareness and acceptability of ITNs, distributing subsidised nets to vulnerable groups, especially children under-five and pregnant women, as well as working with manufacturers to reduce the price of ITNs. The use of ITNs is one of the strategies adopted by the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria (RBM) held in April 2000.