Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the first nationwide bed net campaign, which happened in Togo in 2004. Since then, nearly 3 billion bed nets have been distributed, a remarkable feat that has driven progress in the fight against malaria – from 2000-2015, bed nets prevented 1.3 billion malaria cases and 6.8 million deaths, per the World Health Organization (WHO).
But in recent years, many lessons have been learned about the pitfalls of ‘one-size-fits-all’ malaria prevention strategies – i.e. nationwide distributions of a single bed-net product. Despite extraordinary efforts by national malaria programs, mass bed net distributions – which typically occur every three years – frequently fall short of achieving WHO targets for universal coverage. Countries often lack sufficient community-level data showing recent population change, deterioration or loss of nets, ineffectiveness of certain types of nets due to insecticide resistance, and other factors that can lead to gaps in bed-net coverage.
Bed nets continue to be a highly cost-effective method of malaria prevention. But the emergence of seasonal malaria chemoprevention, spatial repellents, the RTS,S vaccine, indoor residual spraying and other new interventions has shifted country-level focus towards more holistic, mixed-method approaches.
For all these reasons, malaria-endemic countries must use data-driven decision making to determine the right mix of prevention strategies, when to launch these campaigns, and in what localities. As countries go through the painstaking process of developing complex, locally-tailored malaria control strategies, the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) – a group of over 40 organizations – plays a pivotal role as a technical assistance provider focused on planning and implementation of bed net campaigns. AMP also develops operational guidance and tools to improve the effectiveness of these interventions.
Read the full blog post to learn more about how AMP helps countries digitalize data collection, harness the power of geo-mapping, implement bed-net campaigns during humanitarian emergencies, and transition to next-generation bed nets.
More than ever, malaria-endemic countries are deploying a mix of malaria prevention tools and strategies, tailoring their nationwide campaigns all the way down to the local level. The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) plays a pivotal role as a technical assistance provider, helping countries through the painstaking process of developing these highly nuanced campaigns. United to Beat Malaria is proud to be a longtime funder of AMP. Photos courtesy of Alliance for Malaria Prevention.
