"JANGWA, Ethiopia, 25 November 2009 A steady flow of parents and children make their way to the Jangwa Health Post in Dembia District, seeking treatment for malaria. The rainy season has recently ended, creating ideal breeding conditions for malaria-bearing mosquitoes here in Ethiopias Amhara region.
Two health extension workers, Mantegbosh and Alemtsehay, sit outside the wattle-and-daub health post, testing villagers for the Falciparum plasmodium, a dangerous strain of malaria found in Ethiopia. They use UNICEF-supplied rapid diagnostic test kits and treat their patients with drugs supplied by UNICEF.
In partnership with members of the Roll Back Malaria initiative, UNICEF has been working with the Government of Ethiopia to cut malarial morbidity and mortality in half by 2010, and another 50 per cent by 2015.
Since 2005, UNICEF Ethiopia has helped to distribute about 20 million insecticide-treated bed nets in malaria prone-districts such as Dembia. Health extension workers make sure that the nets are used properly and that stagnant pools, where mosquitoes breed, are drained."
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