By Frank Kamuntu
The government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health has started mass mosquito net distribution campaign dubbed “Under the net” where a total of 26.5 million treated nets will be distributed country wide.
The Ministry revealed this through it’s twitter handle that due to the current situation of COVID-19, there will be less paper work since team members on the distribution process will be using smartphones for data entry. The ministry also said there will be no mass gatherings since nets will be distributed door to door.
“Only those who will have registered with their Village Health Teams (VHT) will receive mosquito nets,” they said.
Previously on the launch of the distribution program in Entebbe at Uganda Medical Stores ware house, Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dr.Diana Atwine noted that they expect to complete this exercise by the end of this calendar year.
Districts that were affected by flooding in the Eastern region and those most especially in northern Uganda are first target of the distribution since they have recorded higher cases of malaria due to floods.
Dr. Diana also noted that Karamoja and West Nile sub regions are the first to receive nets and for all batches delivered to districts and down to sub counties, a detailed message will be sent to key stakeholders from national to local area level for follow up.
She added that everything is in place to ensure that the exercise is done successfully highlighting use of the system to monitor the progress.
“Ministry of health has developed ICT capacity to account for every single mosquito net given to every single household through a robust mobile phone reporting system” Dr. Atwine said.
