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An Open Letter to the Government

Mon, 9 Jan 2006 Source: Obosu-Mensah, Kwaku

Statistics provided by the public health sector confirms that in 2004, at least, 2000 pregnant women as well as 16,000 children died of malaria. This is obviously a major mortality/health problem in Ghana

We all know that the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) is one of the most cost effective means of dealing with malaria. A Tanzanian company, A to Z Textile Mills Ltd., produces the Olyset Net mosquito bed netting which sells for about $12 a net. In Tanzanian and Ugandan townships where the nets are being used malaria has become a ?forgotten? problem. In Ghana, the trade name of the net is ********, and it is sold by a wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical products. Thus, the nets are easily available in Ghana


Knowing that most of our poor farmers who generate a substantial portion of our foreign exchange (income) cannot afford the nets, what step has the government taken to make the nets available to the population cheaply?

Dr. Kwaku Obosu-Mensah
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Lorain County Community College, USA


Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.

Columnist: Obosu-Mensah, Kwaku