Net Gain for Africa Task Force
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Source: "WHO TDRNEWS" <tdrnews@who.ch>
Increasing the availability of insecticide-treated nets for malaria control
in sub-Saharan Africa through public-private partnerships
PATH Canada is pleased to announce that it will house the newly created Net
Gain for Africa Task Force, a two-year programme to increase the availabil-
ity of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) for malaria control in sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA). The objective of the Net Gain for Africa Task Force is to
reduce morbidity and mortality from malaria, particularly among women and
children, by increasing the proportion of households in SSA that own mos-
quito nets and by treating the nets regularly with appropriate insecticide.
Malaria is a serious barrier to the health, productivity and development of
a large and increasing proportion of the SSA population, especially of
women and children. In 1996, malaria was the leading cause of mortality and
morbidity in Africa, based on the disability adjusted life year (DALY).
Ninety per cent of the world's malaria deaths occur in SSA. The overwhelm-
ing burden of malaria on mortality and morbidity in SSA, combined with in-
creasing malaria drug resistance, has led to a growing interest in control-
ling malaria through the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs).
The Net Gain for Africa Task Force will develop a reference centre for ITN
programming and information dissemination, and will provide strategic tech-
nical inputs to projects and research, with a view to developing innovative
and cost-effective strategies for ITN interventions. Net Gain will gener-
ate special and unique expertise on how to work with the private sector and
the market to enhance ITN delivery. Through its actions, Net Gain will
contribute to making ITN technology more sustainable, as well as more
widely and affordably available.
The Net Gain for Africa Task Force will work with local partners as well as
individuals and agencies (such as the World Health Organisation and the Ma-
laria Consortium) to overcome the prevailing lack of ITN application knowl-
edge. This will be of great value in assisting African governments and in-
ternational donors to define and implement sustainable ITN programmes. The
initiatives of the Task Force will provide the foundation upon which a Net
Gain Secretariat will be built.
The creation of the Net Gain for Africa Task Force has been made possible
by a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ot-
tawa, Canada.
For further information, please contact:
PATH Canada
170 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 902
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5V5 Canada
Tel: +1-613-233-0623
Fax: +1-613-230-8401
E-mail: path@synapse.net
http://www.synapse.net/ path/
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