By Foday Moriba Conteh
With the avowed objective of providing health assistance to Sierra Leoneans, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) purchased 2.5 million insecticide treated bed nets for Sierra Leone, and on March 29th 2020 delivered them to all districts throughout the country. These bed nets will prevent malaria infection for 5 million Sierra Leoneans over the coming years.
Sierra Leone has one of the highest burdens of malaria disease of any country globally. In a recent national survey, one in four children under age 5 had fever in the two weeks prior to being surveyed and four in ten children tested positive for malaria via microscopy. Malaria disproportionately affects the poor – particularly pregnant women and children in Africa – and traps families in a vicious cycle of disease and poverty. It is a danger to pregnancy and new-born health and keeps children out of school and parents out of work.
In the weeks ahead, with technical and financial assistance from PMI, Sierra Leone’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) will preposition all the 2.5 million bed nets at peripheral health units nationwide in preparation for the universal bed net campaign.
Although 68% of Sierra Leonean households have at least one insecticide-treated bed net, only one quarter of all households met the global standard of at least one treated bed net for every two household members. Increasing the number of nets available to all Sierra Leonean households will have a significant impact on preventing malaria infection and is a priority of the U.S. Mission in partnering with the Government of Sierra Leone.
Preventing malaria deaths and infections through bed net distribution is especially important in the early stages of combating the spread of COVID-19 and before the rainy season. One of the lessons learned from previous outbreaks is that halting malaria prevention and treatment efforts during a crisis can lead to larger numbers of preventable deaths from malaria. It is important to get these bed nets to households to prevent a spike in malaria deaths or COVID-19 complications due to malaria.
U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Maria E. Brewer, commended the Government of Sierra Leone for taking the smart and courageous decision to forge ahead with bringing bed nets to all Sierra Leonean households, protecting the health of children and families. She added that this investment will save the lives of Sierra Leoneans through more effective prevention of malaria and demonstrates the commitment of the United States – in partnership with the Government of Sierra Leone to the Sierra Leonean people.
The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative is led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). PMI has been a proud partner of Sierra Leone since 2017, helping to decrease child death rates by 22 percent through investments totalling almost $45 million.
PMI has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to fight malaria in Sierra Leone since 2017, through the National Malaria Control Program. PMI has funded the implementation of core malaria interventions and provides valuable technical and operational assistance in the areas of routine distribution of insecticide treated nets to pregnant women and children under five, procurement of malaria test kits and treatment, entomological monitoring, and data strengthening and improvement.
