Today's Headlines
- Raila to Tour Country to Rebuild Reputation
- Raila Revives Pentagon At Dinner
- Hardline Islamist Leader Tells Kenya Not to Send Its Troops
- Kibaki Pledges More Cattle to Farmers
- The Obama Administration - the Hard Work Begins
- Kibaki Here for Three-Day State Visit
- KCB Trading on Stock Market
- Love Thy Neighbour
- Diocese Condemns Lynching of Suspected Criminals
- é Event
- UN Warns of Crisis in Kenyan Camps
- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania Disagree On Land Ownership
- Safaricom Braves Market to Register Profits
- Pirates Hijack Saudi Ship Off Kenya
- Now Pirates Attack Saudi Ship
- Kanda Bongoman Thrills Nairobi
- Namanga Road Project Grapples With Unforeseen Problems
- Regional Bishops to Strengthen Apostolate to the Nomads
- Religious Leaders Criticize MPs' Move to Reject Taxation
- Bishop Says Sisters' Kidnappers are Mere Vandals
- Somali Pirates Seize Chinese Ship
- Election Violence Report Divides ODM
- Nairobi Gets High On Obama
- Heavy Rains to Affect Hundreds of Thousands
- KNCHR Position On the Waki Report
- What the Global Left Can Learn From Obama's Victory
- A Global Health Model, Village By Village
- ICT - Kenya?s Seacom Cable Construction Advances
- Whom Will You Pick for the Athlete of the Year Award?
- Odinga Issues Threat On Polls Violence Report
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
October 10, 2008
News Article
Kenya's Ministry of Health has launched a four-day nationwide campaign to retreat at least 1.8 million bed nets with long-lasting insecticide to control the spread of malaria as the rainy season sets in, a senior health official said.
"The nets will be retreated in all the eight provinces in the country," Shahnaz Sharif, the senior deputy director of medical services in Kenya's health ministry said. "400,000 torn and worn out nets will be replaced with long-lasting nets."
Most of the bed nets in use are not long lasting and require constant insecticide re-treatment, Sharif said.
"Those in use in most homesteads were introduced in the market in 2002, they only last 6 months," he said.
The long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) are more effective in providing protection from the bites of malaria causing mosquitoes.
Sharif said the use of treated nets has reduced malaria prevalence. "In 2004 some areas had a prevalence of 30 percent, now it's down to six percent," he said, adding that the ministry of health would soon be launching the malaria indicator survey for the whole country.
Those in use in most homesteads were introduced in the market in 2002, they only last 6 months
"Despite big increases in the supply of mosquito nets, especially of LLINs in Africa, the number available in 2006 was still far below need in almost all countries," said a UN World Health Organization (WHO) malaria report for 2008. Only 125 million people in Africa used bed nets in 2007, while a further 650 million were still at risk of malaria.
"There were an estimated 247 million malaria cases among 3.3 billion people at risk worldwide in 2006, causing nearly a million deaths, mostly of children under five years," the WHO report said.
Eighty percent of the cases in Africa were in 13 countries, and over half were in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya, said the report.
The net re-treatment campaign will cost at least US$4.6 million and is supported by the UN Children's Fund and WHO.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
