Pregnant women and mothers with young children below the age of five have been challenged to use anti-malaria mosquito nets to protect themselves and their children from malaria attacks during this rainy season.
Riakemuma clan elder, Kasmir Ayuma Maobe, has asked all pregnant mothers and those with children under the age of five to register with his office to have them benefit from the Government's free Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) to protect their families from malaria.
Speaking at Riakemuma village during a public awareness and mobilization campaign against malaria, Maobe warned expectant mothers against sleeping without ITNs, since them and their unborn babies’ risked contracting malaria, especially during the rainy season.
"I am reminding expectant mothers and the general public to make use of ITNs to protect themselves against malaria which is rampant during this rainy season across the country," stated Maobe.
He however, decried cases where expectant mothers benefited from the Government's free Long Lasting Nets (LLNs) only to sell the same to meet their basic financial obligations to the detriment of their health and that of their unborn babies.
He educated members of the public on the need to embrace good public hygiene and sanitation in their homesteads, encouraging them to routinely clear bushes and drain stagnant water around their homes to destabilize the malaria-causing mosquitoes' breeding sites.
Maobe warned members of the public within his jurisdiction against the culture of self-medication and instead seek medical advice at health facilities for professional treatment against malaria and other related ailments.