By. Admin
Government through the health ministry has announced the distribution of treated mosquito nets in the districts of Kampala and Wakiso starting this weekend with the registration of residents by the local leaders and village health teams.
Dr. Diana Atwine the permanent secretary said, final distribution of nets will be done the following week with each net to be given to two people per house.
The exercise which was supposed to be carried out in December last year was pushed to this month due to the heavy rains in the country which would not make it possible for the teams to distribute freely the nets to the people.
However, Dr. Diana Atwine has expressed concerns over the continued misuse of treated mosquito nets which were distributed to them by government.
Atwine who was addressing the media today in Kampala on the distribution of nets in Kampala and Wakiso confirmed witnessing massive misuse of the nets be people in Luwero.
She stated that the residents are now using the nets to harvest aunts something she says is unfortunate and downplays government’s efforts to fight malaria.
At the start of the distribution campaign last year, government revealed that it will be working with local governments to ensure that the nets are not misused and this was to be enforced by having local governments pass by-laws to guide on the use and punish people who put the nets to wrong use.
The third universal treated mosquito net distribution campaign dubbed “Under the Net” will see the distribution of 27.5 million long life treated mosquito nets throughout the country.
Uganda has made significant improvement in the fight against malaria in the last decade. Malaria prevalence has reduced significantly from 42% in 2009 to 19% in 2014 and now to 9.2% according to the malaria indicator survey 2018/19.
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