Stop using treated mosquito nets to cover refuse – GHS warns refuse collectors

The Ghana Health Service has warned refuse collectors against using treated mosquito nets distributed to fight malaria to cover refuse being carted on tricycles.

It is common in many communities in Ghana’s capital city, Accra to see riders of tricycles used as refuse carting vehicles using treated mosquito nets to cover refuse to prevent spillage onto the road.

But the Director of Health Promotion, Ghana Health Service, Dr. Aboagye Dacosta in an interview with the host of “Ghana Kasa” show on Kasapa 102.5FM/Agoo TV, Bonohene Baffuor Awuah, a day after World Malaria Day was celebrated, described the act as very worrying, adding that such conduct militates against the fight to end malaria in Ghana.

He called on perpetrators to put an immediate stop to the act.

“I see this as a very worrying development where refuse collectors instead of sleeping in the treated mosquito nets to prevent them from contracting malaria rather use them to cover refuse in order not to spill onto the street. You see this often with Aboboyaa (tricycle) riders.

“The reason the government deliberately distributed treated mosquito nets to households across the country was to protect people from mosquito bites that cause malaria and not for any other use.”

In the year 2016, Ghana launched a country-wide campaign to distribute insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to 1.2 million children in over 14,000 public and private primary schools in the Volta, Eastern, Central, Western, Ashanti, and then Brong Ahafo regions of the country.

The event took place at Odumase in the Lower Manya Municipality of the Eastern Region and was led by the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) of the Ghana Health Service and the Schools Health Program of the Ghana Education Service, in partnership with the VectorWorks project funded by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

This year’s World Malaria Day was commemorated in Hohoe in the Volta Region on April 25, 2022, with a call on the citizenry to embrace the use of treated mosquito nets to prevent contracting the disease.