07 December 2006
Senegalese Communities Expand Use of Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets
Partnership for a Better Life
"It is my hope that there will soon be insecticide-treated nets in every household" said Oumar Diagne, deputy mayor of Thiès Region in Senegal.
"Rest assured that the people of Thiès will turn out in large numbers" to treat their mosquito nets," he said.
With local media looking on, U.S. Ambassador to Senegal Janice Jacobs and Senegal's deputy governor of Thiès Region, Baba Ly, stepped up to a basin and each added a button-sized insecticide tab to a half liter of water, shaking it to get an even mix. Wearing masks and plastic gloves, they poured the insecticide over white, blue and pink nets and massaged the solution by hand into the fabric before laying the nets out flat to dry.
When the officials finished treating nets, others took their places at the plastic basins. This scene was to be replayed over and over by thousands of Senegalese with treatment kits subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. Senegalese families will help cover costs of voluntary health educators so they can continue raising awareness of health risks at the community level.
An insecticide-treated bed net is an important tool in preventing malaria. USAID/Senegal has encouraged greater use of bed nets over the past several years.
Those nets dipped in September 2006 belonged to pregnant women. They were among the first of 100,000 bed nets to be treated during the following two months in the regions of Kaolack, Kolda, Louga, Thiès and Ziguinchor.
Senegalese are being encouraged to bring their nets to re-treatment activities like the one held in Thiès before the end of the rainy season, when malaria infection is the greatest.
"Sleeping under a treated bed net will kill the mosquito and protect not only the person sleeping under the net but will prevent that mosquito from biting anyone else in the house as well. This is why it is especially important that pregnant women and children, who are more at risk from malaria, always sleep under an insecticide-treated bed net," Jacobs said.
One of the treated bed nets belonged to Monique Ndione, a 35-year-old mother of three children who is expecting a fourth. Beaming, a grateful Ndione said if her baby is a girl she will name it after the ambassador.
Malaria poses a "major health problem" in Senegal, according to Ly. The disease is the country's primary killer and accounts for 35 percent of all cases at health facilities.
"Children under 5 years of age and pregnant women pay the biggest price in this disease," he said.
Ly urged "massive use" of insecticide-treated bed nets to beat back malaria in his region.
To carry out the treatment campaign, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is working with a consortium of nongovernmental organizations led by the Christian Children’s Fund that includes Africare, Plan International and World Vision.
Largely as a result of USAID-supported efforts to promote the marketing and use of treated bed nets, the percentage of Senegalese children sleeping under a treated net increased from 5 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2004. Among pregnant women, treated net use also rose, from 5 percent in 2000 to 31 percent in 2004.
In June 2006, U.S. first lady Laura Bush announced that Senegal would join six other African nations as a focus country for the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
PMI activities in Senegal will include indoor residual spraying, preventative care for pregnant women and prompt treatment with the new artemesinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). These drugs are available in health facilities and community health huts and are supported by training, information and education campaigns to improve access to care.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
