20 December 2008
Health Minister Dr. Walter Gwenigale has called for the arrest of people selling mosquito nets that were distributed by the ministry free of charge.
Minister Gwenigale noted that the mosquito nets are given free of charge to citizens to protect them from malaria and not to be used for bath scrubs. The Health Minister made the pronouncement Tuesday at the launch of 2008 Liberia Malaria indicator Survey (LMIS) held at the Health Ministry.
He noted that the sale of mosquito nets sends out wrong signals to the donor community that Liberia is not managing donated items. The Health Minister is therefore calling on the Liberia National Police to arrest anyone caught selling donated mosquito nets and forward such person to court.
The launching ceremonies were preceded by an Advocacy and Sensitization Meeting with county superintendents and health officers. The one-day Advocacy and Sensitization Meeting was intended to sensitize and seek the cooperation of the local government officials and health officers about the 2008 LMIS.
LMIS is intended to update the data provided by the 2005 LMIS and provide information on the impact of malaria control and prevention efforts since 2005.
The survey will also collect data on households that own a mosquito net and the number of children who slept under the net the previous night. The 2008 Malaria Indicator Survey will further measure the prevalence of malaria and its associated syndrome, anemia among children throughout the country.
A health ministry release said the data from the survey will be used as baseline for the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) that was recently initiated in Liberia with funding from USAID.
The survey results will provide data for the National Malaria Control Program regarding mosquito coverage and use, coverage of intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women, treatment practices for childhood fever, and prevalence of malaria and anemia among children age 6-59 months.
It will also assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of malaria prevention, control and treatment in the general population.
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