Mothers Complain Of Shortage Of Free Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets
A number nursing mothers in Accra have expressed worry over the unavailability of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs), which are very much required in the fight against malaria.
The mothers accused the Ghana Health Service of failing to make the nets available to them. That, they said, was making it difficult to fight the disease, especially in infants.
According to them, in spite of publications that indicated that the Ghana Health Service and its development partners and non-governmental organisations were distributing free insecticide treated nets to pregnant and nursing mothers, many were yet to benefit from the largesse.
A mother’s concern The observations were made in an interview the Daily Graphic conducted among mothers at an event forming part of the celebration of Africa Immunisation Week at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
Some of them complained that even though they had been registered to receive free ITNs, they had been waiting for several months now without getting them.
Others also claimed that all efforts to get the free mosquito nets from the hospitals had not yielded any results.
“How can we protect ourselves and our children from becoming infected with malaria when the Ghana Health Service cannot supply us with the free insecticide nets,” said Gifty Asare, a young nursing mother.
The shortage of the treated bed nets in pharmacy shops across the city was also a source of frustration for her. “We even cannot get any to buy,” she said.
When the Daily Graphic contacted the National Vice Chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGO in Health (GCNH), Mr Bright Amissah- Nyarko, he explained that the nets were in short supply because donors who brought them into the country had delayed in bringing them in.
However, he said, the coalition had established distribution points in some communities where mothers could go for the few nets available.
Mr Nyarko said when the situation improved, the coalition would be embarking on a scheme to distribute the treated nets in all its 216 district agencies across the country.
<<Print>>