Social awareness key to Kenya's malaria control efforts

Amina Nyamawi returned her mosquito net to the health centre as word spread across Karimbo village in the Kilifi district of Kenya's Coast province that the nets were linked to evil spirits.

Kilifi - "The chief convinced me the net was safe so I took it again, but my baby and I went to Mombasa where my husband lives so that we could try the net together," said Amina Nyamawi. "Nothing happened," she added.

Hundreds of villagers in Karimbo handed back their nets in September and October 2006 as rumours spread that the nets made strange noises at night, possibly from spirits, said Edgar Mshelle, coordinator of the Kenya Red Cross Society's (KRCS) campaign against malaria in Kilifi and Kaloleni districts.

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