Ashanti to distribute 3,000,000 free treated nets

Kumasi, Nov 30, GNA - Three million long lasting insecticide nets are to be freely distributed to people across all parts of the Ashanti Region as part of the stepped up anti-malaria campaign.

Dr. Kwesi Yeboah Awudzi, the Deputy Regional Director, Public Health, said this would be done within six days - Monday, December 7 to Sunday, December to 13.

The nets are being jointly provided by the Global Fund and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Addressing a media briefing in Kumasi, Dr. Awudzi, said they had already finished with the registration of the households and trained volunteers to carry out the exercise.

He urged everybody to join the battle against malaria, a disease he labeled as deadly.

He attributed 67 per cent of deaths among children under the age of five years reported between January and September, this year, in the region, to malaria.

Mrs. Keziah Malm, the acting Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), said the exercise was a continuation of what was started in year 2012 - replace the nets distributed at that time.

She said already Eastern, Brong-Ahafo, Volta, Western, and Central Regions had been covered.

The target was to reduce deaths caused by malaria by 75 per cent by 2020.

She stated that the nets were strictly not for sale.

GNA