Strategy stepped up against malaria in Sierra leone

Sierra Leone's health ministry on Thursday ordered all health workers to step up efforts to raise awareness on malaria prevention in a bid to achieve the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The call came at the start of the rainy season when malaria is known to peak, National Malaria Control Program official, Sister Wani Komba Lahai, told AFP. She noted that as part of the anti-malaria battle, 3.2 million insecticide treated bednets (ITNs) were distributed free of charge throughout the country last year. She added that this resulted in a decrease in the number of people who suffered from malaria between 2009 and 2010 with the morbidity for children under five dropping from 73.2 percent to 47 percent. "Mortality due to malaria fell from 32 percent to 16 percent," she noted. Sister Wani also said the government had also waived taxes on all imported malaria drugs. The poverty reduction MDGs range from cutting abject poverty by half, slashing the number suffering from hunger by half, to universal primary education and reducing child mortality by two thirds.