Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Distribution of nets splits malaria fighters - International Herald Tribune

Distribution of nets splits malaria fighters - International Herald Tribune: "...Villages like Maendeleo are at the center of a debate that has split malaria fighters: how to distribute mosquito nets.

Recently, Dr. Arata Kochi, the blunt new director of the World Health Organization's malaria program, declared that as far as he was concerned, 'the debate is at an end.' Virtually the only way to get the nets to poor people, he said, is to hand out millions free.

In doing so, Kochi turned his back on an alternative long favored by the Clinton and Bush administrations %u2014 distribution by so-called social marketing, in which mosquito nets are sold through local shops at low, subsidized prices %u2014 $1 or so for an insecticide-impregnated net that costs $5 to $7 from the maker %u2014 with donors underwriting the losses and paying consultants to come up with brand names and advertise the nets [...]"

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