An Open Letter to the Government

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

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