- The campaign was launched in Homa Bay County on November 15, 2023, with 830,862 nets issued, covering 91 per cent of registered households
- Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) stand as a highly effective tool in malaria prevention and control programmes
Image: FILE
The Ministry of Health has begun distribution of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Net (LLIN) in six high-burden counties in an intensified war against malaria.
The distribution drive is targeting six counties in the Lake and Coast endemic regions.
They include Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, Kwale, Mombasa, and Taita Taveta.
The exercise which began on Monday is expected to go on until February 3.
The exercise commenced on Monday with data validation, county and subcounty sensitization, training of healthcare workers and training of Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and village elders.
During the exercise the ministry targets to distribute 262,865 nets in Taita Taveta, 668,779 in Kwale, 932,284 in Mombasa, 738,008 in Siaya, 858,658 in Kisumu and 829,507 in Migori.
"After distributing nets in these six counties, we shall proceed to distribute in 10 more counties in March and April until all the targeted population receive their requisite LLINs," PS Public Health Mary Muthoni said.
Muthoni has urged communities and beneficiaries to use the nets correctly and consistently to protect against mosquito bites, the primary mode of malaria transmission.
The ministry is targeting 22 high-burden counties in the 2023/24 campaign and aims to distribute 15.3 million nets, supported by the Global Fund and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative.
Muthoni in a statement on Tuesday said the goal is to conclude the campaign by April 2024.
The campaign was launched in Homa Bay County on November 15, 2023, where 830,862 nets were issued, covering 91 per cent of registered households.
Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) stand as a highly effective tool in malaria prevention and control programmes.
To enhance the coverage and utilization of LLINs for malaria vector control, Kenya has adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of conducting mass LLIN distribution campaigns once every three years.
"In Kenya, malaria has imposed a heavy burden on the people, with about 6.7 million clinical cases and 4,000 deaths reported in 2022," Muthoni said.
"Children under five years and pregnant mothers continue to bear the brunt of this preventable disease," she added.
The first mass distribution campaign for universal coverage took place in 2006, where 3.4 million nets were distributed, integrated with measles vaccination.
This was followed by the 2011/12 campaign with the distribution of 10.6 million LLINs to populations in the malaria endemic and epidemic regions.
The 2020/21 campaign, conducted amid the challenges of COVID-19, saw the distribution of approximately 16.2 million nets across 27 counties.
The distribution of LLINs to households has shown tremendous progress in the fight against malaria, with a significant drop in malaria prevalence from eight per cent to six per cent nationally as per the Kenya Malaria Indicator Survey 2015 and 2020 respectively.