MALARIA: Madagascar, distiribution of bed nets to remote areas

Because of difficult terrain, staff from USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through the President’s Malaria Initiative, trekked up to 120 miles (200 kilometers), forded rivers on foot or crossed in rickety canoes to reach communities to supervise campaign preparations and ensure distribution of free mosquito nets during the first universal coverage campaign in Madagascar in December and November 2009. With the help, goodwill and hard work of local staff, community members and their leaders, about 1,650,000 nets (1,000,000 provided by PMI) were distributed to over 820,000 households, protecting over 4.1 million people in 19 health districts on the east coast of Madagascar where malaria is endemic. This effort, carried out in collaboration with UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Malagasy Red Cross, Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), Population Services International (PSI), USAIDDELIVER and the National Malaria Control Program, is in support of a three-phase mass distribution campaign to achieve universal coverage (two nets per household) by the end of 2010. Teams drawn from local Roll Back Malaria partners supervised distribution in each of the campaign districts. Team members included staff from PMI (Madagascar and U.S.-based) and its implementing partners. Some teams had to sleep in health centers or villagers’ houses while out in the field. In the more remote zones, some distribution sites were located over 30 kilometers from the district headquarters and accessible only by foot over difficult terrain- often either in the rain or on recently rained upon mud trails
http://www.usaid.gov/mg/about/suc_stories_mosquitonets.html