Anambra commissioner tasks residents as government shares over 3.8m treated nets

Anambra State government has urged residents to ensure they cooperate with officials distributing Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) to households across the state, saying the aim is to reduce the scourge of malaria in the state.

This is as government commenced mass distribution of over 3.8 million ITNs to residents on Sunday, urging families to endeavour to collect the nets.

Speaking to newsmen in Awka, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike, said the programme is in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), and Malaria Consortium (MC) with support from GiveWell Open Philanthropic funding.

He said the distribution of the nets is free to every household in the state and will be on door-to-door basis across the 21 local councils, adding that the campaign is to ensure that for every two persons in the sate, there is one bed-net to sleep inside.

Obidike, represented by the Head of Department, Public Health and Disease Control, Anaeme Afam, counseled that households must ensure that they have someone at home within this period to collect nets, and fight off malaria by sleeping inside the net every night.