Use of mosquito nets: Is it time to think differently?
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Oleribe, OO
Akpalu, A
Ayegua-Hagan, N
Akande, T
Taylor-Robinson, SD
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
While the Millennium Development Goal 6 has concentrated on malaria elimination strategies with some degree of
success, reflected in falling morbidity and mortality over the past 15 years, the situation in Africa is not as promising as
the rest of the world. We wondered how effective the message to use insecticide-treated mosquito nets was and with
this in mind, in September 2016, we undertook a survey of highly-trained doctors from Nigeria and Ghana, attending
Millennium Development Goal 6 postgraduate training courses in Ibadan and Accra to assess whether they practiced
antimalarial personal protection policies themselves. Surprisingly, over 40% of the doctors in the Accra survey did not
even own a mosquito net with 20% in Ibadan. Only 7% of those in Ghana used their nets daily, rising to 20% in the
Nigerian respondents. We conclude that further public health measures are needed to bring home the message that
mosquito nets should be used on a daily basis in endemic areas and that no section of society is exempt.
success, reflected in falling morbidity and mortality over the past 15 years, the situation in Africa is not as promising as
the rest of the world. We wondered how effective the message to use insecticide-treated mosquito nets was and with
this in mind, in September 2016, we undertook a survey of highly-trained doctors from Nigeria and Ghana, attending
Millennium Development Goal 6 postgraduate training courses in Ibadan and Accra to assess whether they practiced
antimalarial personal protection policies themselves. Surprisingly, over 40% of the doctors in the Accra survey did not
even own a mosquito net with 20% in Ibadan. Only 7% of those in Ghana used their nets daily, rising to 20% in the
Nigerian respondents. We conclude that further public health measures are needed to bring home the message that
mosquito nets should be used on a daily basis in endemic areas and that no section of society is exempt.
Date Issued
2017-10-30
Date Acceptance
2017-10-16
Citation
Malaria Chemotherapy, Control & Elimination, 2017, 6
ISSN
2090-276X
Publisher
OMICS International
Journal / Book Title
Malaria Chemotherapy, Control & Elimination
Volume
6
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Oleribe OO, et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
159
Date Publish Online
2017-10-31