KISUMU COUNTY GOVERNMENT PLANS TO DISTRIBUTE OVER 12.6 MILLION NETS

Jul 24, 2014 Emmanuel Opiyo Health, Kisumu, News 0

The Kisumu County Government through the Ministry of Health plans to distribute nets to at least 25.2 million people in Kenya to help reduce the malaria prevalence in the country.

The first phase being scheduled across the whole of Western region which include areas in the former Nyanza and Western.

The said regions are endemic areas and have high prevalence to malaria year in year out hence the occasional distribution of nets that occur once in three years, the last being in 2011.

Kisumu County Government is targeting to give 12.6 million nets across the country ensuring at least one net is used by two household members hence reducing the spread of malaria to manageable levels.

The process of registration and distribution are expected to commence in the month of July which will be followed by a data analysis of all the information collected to validate the needs and how much nets should be distributed accordingly.

It is expected that Health Workers, Community Health Workers, Community Health Extension workers, nurses, public health officer and village elder will be the teams included in the distribution of the nets.

According to a document in our possession the households will be registered for 5 days by village elders and community health workers who would be sensitized on the same and consequently the data verified.

Nets will be distributed to households during first week of August 2014 in designated posts for 5 days.

According to Winnie Alando a Community Health Extension Worker based at Nyalenda Health Centre, a previous campaign by the Ministry of Health done in 2011 shows that ownership of the nets was set at 67 percent and usage was at 43 percent meaning usage of the said nets remains at a low compared to ownership of the nets.

Distribution of the nets is also meant to take place in other epidemic parts of Kenya in phase two of the distribution process.