A call has been made to designers of the Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLIN) being distributed free of charge in Ghana, to make them broader for ease of sleep and movement.

Mr Christopher Nutsugah, a resident of Kpenoe-Agadzi Zone 2, a suburb of Ho, made the call whilst presiding over an event to mark the World Malaria Day.

He said with its present size, the LLIN was not in symmetry with the width and length of most beds making copulation, rest and movement inside it clumsy.

The programme was put together by Hope for the Future Generations (HFFG) an NGO under its Behavior Change Communication (BCC) initiative on malaria prevention, with support from UKAID.

Rita Lodonu, Project Coordinator, said the project “seeks to increase awareness on the use of long lasting insecticide nets and malaria treatment protocol using RTD kits to test all suspected cases of malaria before treatment”.

She said the project was being implemented in 10 selected communities in 10 districts of the Volta Region.

The districts are Ho Municipal, Ho-West, Hohoe Municipal, Biakoye, North-Dayi, Kadjebi, Agotime-Ziope, Adaklu, Kpando and Afadzato-South.

Miss Lodonu said the project “is to reduce the malaria burden among all age groups in targeted communities, through increased use of LLINs and approved malaria protocols”.

She cited training of community health volunteers, radio panel discussions, and retraining of healthcare providers on the use of RDT kits, house-to-house education and community durbars, as among strategies being adopted.

Miss Lodonu said between January and March 2016, HFFG had reached a total of 459,535 in the Region with the message.

Dr Atsu Seake-Kwawu, Ho Municipal Director of Health Services, said the malaria situation has changed for the better in the last 15 years under the Global Fund’s support for the Ministry of Health and the National Malaria Control Programme.

He said the directorate has registered a 27 per cent decline in three years from 80,000 cases to just below 60,000 cases.

Dr Seake-Kwawu said cases admitted for malaria have also reduced from 2,810 in 2013 to 1,574 in 2015.

He said the hope that malaria could be eradicated “calls for all households to be involved, it calls for more funding to carry out programmes, it calls for more actors and better collaboration with them, it calls for more effective and evidence-based options to deal with the disease and above all calls for sustained political commitments…”.

Prosper Amegadzie, a Disease Control Officer, said the venue for marking the Day was selected because of the high malaria cases reported from there.