"Smile!" This is a good moment for a family portrait, as Ihiri Justin Sonda and his extended family have just received nine insecticide-treated mosquito nets. They pose happily for a camera in front of their house in Diébougou, in south-western Burkina Faso.
Altogether 60,000 nets were distributed by Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers during the first week of July in Burkina Faso's Diébougou health district. The campaign, primarily financed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), was the first ever to apply new World Health Organization (WHO) distribution standards. According to the new criteria, one net is given to every two persons.
Ihiri Justin Sonda, with 17 people in his household, was therefore entitled to nine mosquito nets. Before, they had two nets in the house, and malaria was common.
Intensive care
"Recently, I spent two days in the hospital because of malaria. During my convalescence, our seven-month-old baby was treated in intensive care, also for malaria. Two years ago, we lost a one-month-old baby girl because of malaria. I hope these nets will improve health in our family," he says.
Before, mosquito net distributions targeted mainly pregnant women and children under five, and the maximum number of nets per family was two.
With a population of around 110,000 people, Diébougou is the second most malaria-prone region of Burkina Faso. The environment is characterized by rich vegetation, several dams and poor sanitation facilities, all of which favour the reproduction of mosquitoes. Half of the consultations in local health centres are linked to malaria and child mortality due to malaria is high.
High malaria prevalence
"The Burkinabe Red Cross has looked for partners to fight against malaria for a long time. Fortunately, this year the IFRC was able to support the National Society with 60,000 mosquito nets. The Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso proposed Diébougou as a place for the distribution because of its high malaria prevalence and the suitable number of the population," says Dr Aissa Fall, health director for Sahel countries at the IFRC West and Central Africa zone.
"I am happy that the IFRC could start this pilot project to distribute one net for every two people. There is growing scientific evidence that malaria incidences are significantly reduced when combining high mosquito net coverage rates with hang up campaigns by trained volunteers who ensure high net usage rates," explains Jason Peat, malaria programme manager at the IFRC in Geneva.
Jefferson Sié Kam, a father of seven, is one of the volunteers helping with the Diébougou distribution campaign. After having distributed more than 300 nets in the village of Sorindigui, he visits the households and informs people about the causes of malaria, how to use the net correctly and when it is time to refer to the closest health centre.
Modern medicine
"Sometimes it is hard to convince people who have symptoms of malaria to go to the health centre," he says. "People have strong habits of using medicinal plants and traditional healers and some of them don't believe in modern medicine. Fortunately mosquito nets are widely accepted and people understand the importance to sleep under it."
Elyse Kam, 21, listens to Jefferson attentively when he explains symptoms of severe malaria during a house visit. All this brings back painful memories from March this year when she lost her first child, aged only four months, because of malaria. She still finds it hard to talk about the death but has decided to share her experiences if she could that way help others.
"Here in Burkina Faso, people often say: 'a long life is linked to the way we protect ourselves'. I would like to engage in the sensitization activities on malaria. When I watched the volunteers during the mosquito net distribution, I realized that it's an excellent way to help the community," says Elyse.
New challenges
The Burkinabe Red Cross took the distribution seriously and as a rehearsal for next year, when a country-wide universal distribution of eight million nets is planned for then. Dr. Maxime Yaméogo, the health coordinator at the Burkinabe Red Cross, already sees many challenges ahead:
"In Diébougou, the number of people who came to pick up the nets were greater than had been registered. So, at the end of the distribution, we had to look for 700 additional nets in order not to let people down.
"Since we know that the last country wide registration of people in Burkina Faso was done in 2006, we really need to do some research on how we will be able to reach everyone next year."
Best strategy
After this year's campaign, the Red Cross Red Crescent, the National Malaria Control Programme and the WHO will jointly look for the best strategy for the registration by distributing some 8, 000 nets in ten villages in September 2009.
"Another challenge is the training of volunteers. In Diébougou, we mobilized 330 volunteers - next year we'll need thousands," explains Dr. Yaméogo.
In addition to the IFRC, the Burkina Faso mosquito net distribution campaign was supported by UNICEF, WHO, PNLP (National Malaria Control Programme), Plan and JICA (Japan International Cooperation agency).
Next year's campaign will be funded by the Global Fund through Plan.
|
 |
 |
|
|
Ihiri Justin Sonda, a father and his extended family received nine insecticide treated mosquito nets during the distribution campaign in Diébougou, Burkina Faso. (p-BFA0014)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Jefferson Sié Kam, a Burkinabe Red Cross volunteer explains how to use correctly the mosquito net during a visit at Elyse Kam's place, Sorindigui village, Burkina Faso. (p-BFA0012)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Elyse Kam lost her first child of malaria in March, 2009. She often sleeps outside since inside the house it is too hot. Sorindigui village, Burkina Faso. (p-BFA0011)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Dr. Maxime Yaméogo, health coordinator at Burkina Faso Red Cross is already planning a country wide mosquito net distribution for 2010. (p-BFA0013)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
In Diébougou Burkina Faso 110 000 people benefited from the mosquito net distribution first week of July. (p-BFA0010)
|
|
News
