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Liberia: Beyond Sensitization to Enforcement
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
22 April 2008
Posted to the web 22 April 2008
Monrovia
Liberians are this week joining others around the world in observance of 'World Malaria Day' under the theme "Malaria-disease without border". During this day, anti-malaria awareness programs are being held worldwide from April 21 - 25.
Accordingly, Liberians began the awareness Monday with programs in the urban-slump township of West Point in Monrovia.
Like in many other countries, malaria is one of the most common killer diseases, and in Liberia, it accounts for about 18 percent of deaths at hospitals, the Acting Program Manager of the Malaria Control Program at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tolbert G. Nyenswah disclosed at the program.
Nyenswah also disclosed that cases of malaria account for about 38 percent of out patients at hospitals.
The need therefore to keep malaria eradication on the national agenda is imperative.
This need was stressed when Nyenswah assured that the Malaria Control Program would continue to sensitize communities to help prevent the disease.
"We have the tools and manpower to fight this malaria sickness, but what we want is the support from the community leaders to help sensitize their people to keep their areas clean," Nyenswah told the gathering.
Indeed, keeping each and every area clean is the key approach to preventing malaria, since the disease is transmitted through mosquitoes which breed in filths and untreated stagnent waters.
But regrettably, despite this knowledge, and inspite of the many years of malaria prevention awareness campaigns, Liberians are today nowhere near eradicating this killer disease.
Mosquitoes are evermore prevalent as communities continued to be plagued with waste disposal crisis rendering the environment very filthy.
The central system of garbage collection don't seem to be working, as communities lack proper disposal sites, thereby leading to the littering of waste.
Therefore, in addition to sensitization, relevant authorities would have to draw up a workable waste or garbage disposal system in which proper and easily accessible disposal sites are earmarked in communities, requiring timely collection of the garbage as well as a national program of regular fumigation of communities.
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With such a workable system, authorities must enforce compliance with proper garbage disposal through fines or levies in extreme cases or very dangerous breaches with jail sentences.
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