POST 00796E : MEASLES CAMPAIGN AND ITN DISTRIBUTION

POST 00796E : MEASLES CAMPAIGN AND ITN DISTRIBUTION Follow-up on Posts 00763E, 00765E, 00767E, 00768E, 00771E, 00774E, 00778E, 00781E, 00784E, 00789E, 00789E and 00792E 3 June 2005 _____________________________________ This posting contains four short contributions. The first is from Christian Lengeler (mailto:[email protected]) from the Swiss Tropical Institute, answers Robert Steinglass' question about the relevance of a statement from an earlier RBM document : "Large-scale and untargeted distribution of no-cost (or highly subsidized) nets is not sustainable and is likely to be counter-productive in the long term." (Post 00789E). The second comes from David Hipgrave (mailto:[email protected]) based in Indonesia, encouraging a colleague, Allan Schapira (mailto:[email protected]) from RBM/WHO to contribute to the discussion. Allan does send the third contribution, also responding to Robert. Finally, Anthony Battersby (mailto:[email protected]) asks a couple of questions far from silly. Without being cynical, the whole point of economic growth and foreign assistance is to create dependency, isn't it? _____________________________________ Dear Robert, Dear colleagues This statement is not current any more, as the RBM group on ITNs has now integrated the recent experience of free ITN distribution. A new version is likely to come out soon. In any case, the view of many of us (in the malaria /ITN community) remains that vaccination might offer a golden opportunity to do something now and doing it fast, but that longer-term strategies ensuring a constant supply of ITNs to pregnant women and young children are even more important. Christian Lengeler ---------------------------------- Allan, hello! There has been a very active debate - some of quite lively - on the pros and cons on ITN distribution as part of mass measles campaigns. In today's second contribution from Robert Steinglass, who has been a great advocate for ensuring that such campaigns should be better used to improve routine EPI, he asks whether there has been any similar debate on malaria mailing lists? He also asks an opinion from someone such as yourself, based on a 2002 quote regarding the subsidised ITN distribution from an RBM technical document. I wonder if you would have time to respond through the mailing list. Thanks in anticipation and best regards Allan. David Dr David Hipgrave Chief, Health and Nutrition Unit, UNICEF Indonesia --------------------------- As to the below quote, it could be said about most public health interventions that if nothing is done to sustain them, they are not sustainable. The quote dates from a time, when there was no public confidence in the will of the international community to invest seriously in malaria control. As for campaigns against routine EPI, it is easy to list the pros and cons of these two approaches and based on that , there should be no reason to accept that it is either or. However, it needs to be said that there has been much more publicity about ITN distribution with measles campaigns than about combination with routine EPI. UNICEF is the organization with most experience in the latter approach. The view of WHO staff is that we need to place much more emphasis on that, while the combination with measles is mainly to be applied where there is a need for rapidly scaling up coverage especially for underserved population groups. Mark Young from UNICEF and Kabir Cham from my department may have more to contribute. We recently had a meeting in Harare beginning of this month on this. Allan Dr Allan Schapira Coordinator, Strategy and Policy Team (MSP) Roll Back Malaria Department (HTM/RBM) WHO --------------------------- Maybe these are silly questions, 1. where are the nets that are distributed during measles campaigns manufactured? If they are made locally that's one thing, if they are imported then that kills the local industry and builds in dependence on imports. 2. Is there any evidence that nets distributed free are actually used long term and they get retreated? Thanks Anthony ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. 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