Mosquito net prices slashed in anti-malaria campaign

While Malawi celebrates the onset of much needed rain, the government and a group of NGOs have started their assault against malaria by dramatically slashing the price of insecticide-treated mosquito nets. About eight million Malawians suffer from malaria every year, and up to 5,000 people die of the preventable disease which is spread by mosquitoes mainly during the rainy season. To help combat the disease, the UN Children's Fund has planned to procure 1.4 million mosquitoes nets this year at a cost of US $4 million for distribution, at a reduced price, to pregnant women and children under five who are the most vulnerable. The NGO Population Services International would distribute the nets throughout the country at US 63 cents. The nets are usually sold at US $3.80 in commercial shops and US $1.90 at health centres. NGOs Save the Children UK, World Vision International and Catholic Relief Services would also distribute them in communities who cannot reach health centres. The announcement came at the end of the Southern African Development Community's Malaria week commemorations. The project is part of the world Roll Back Malaria campaign which aims to halve the number of malaria victims by 2010 by expanding interventions that are known to work. According to the World Health Organisation, sleeping under an insecticide treated net is one of the most effective ways of avoiding malaria, which affects up to 90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is one of the top three killer diseases in Malawi alongside tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and the Malawi government spends about US $7 million per year to treat it. It costs families US $35 per year per household in medical bills and it has a significant impact on lost production. More information