AMF activity update: Jan/Feb 2020

A short update on activities that have taken place at the beginning of this year.

1. In Uganda, where AMF has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health to fund 11.6 million nets for the 2020 mass distribution campaign, roughly half of these will be PBO nets. In 32 of the 67 districts receiving AMF nets, a study will be carried out to assess the effectiveness of a new type of net, called Royal Guard. This net, designed for areas with pyrethroid resistance, is a dual active ingredient (AI) net, meaning that it has two chemicals that can kill mosquitoes. For Royal Guard, these are alphacypermethrin and pyriproxyfen. Their effectiveness will be compared to PBO nets. Separately, the post distribution monitoring (PDM) 30 months after the 2017/18 distribution was carried out in the Eastern region late last year. The results show sleeping space coverage of 80%, which is a very good result. The PDM-30 in the Western region was carried out in February and paper copies are being sent to the data centre in Kampala for entry into our database.
   
   
2. In DRC, the registration of 550,000 households in Sud Ubangi province using electronic devices is complete and the results are being validated. Distribution will be carried out ‘door to door’, meaning that nets are distributed and hung in households, as opposed to beneficiaries going to a fixed distribution site to collect them. In Haut Katanga province, the registration of 1.4 million households is complete and results are being validated. Our partner AGAPE is entering the paper-based records at the data centre AGAPE has established in Kinshasa, working three 7 hour shifts to enter data at a rate of approximately 40,000 households per day. Distribution is now scheduled for April. Registration in Tanganyika province is also being carried out in April. For the 2020/21 mass distribution campaign, AMF has signed its largest ever agreement with the Ministry of Health to fund 16.2 million nets. Nets for the first two provinces of this agreement, Kongo Central and Kinshasa, have been ordered. There have been moderate delays in production due to coronavirus but distribution dates are not affected.
   
   
3. In Guinea, we have signed an agreement with Cabinet Diagnostic to carry out PDMs. The first PDM at 9 months is taking place using electronic devices. Data is available in near real time and is being uploaded to our database. Nets that were diverted to Mali have been identified in Bamako, of which 45,900 (representing 0.95% of the 4.8 million nets funded) are AMF nets. Discussions are ongoing between the Malian and Guinean authorities for these stolen nets to be returned to Guinea. The nets will be returned to Guinea and all will be used to protect Guineans as intended.
   
   
4. In Zambia, we are investigating an issue regarding the distribution data from the previous campaign in 2018. During the PDM-18 in Central, North-Western and Western province, our partner organisation CHAZ will collect paper copies of the distribution data in order to re-enter a portion into our database. This work begun last month but has been delayed by security concerns in Zambia.
   
   
5. In Ghana, we have completed PDMs 9-months following distribution. The results show hang up rate (the proportion of AMF nets that are found hanging) of 71%, which is lower than expected. We have shared the results with the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) to understand what actions can be taken to improve net usage. The first PDM 18 months post distribution in Brong Ahafo region is currently taking place.
   
   
6. In Malawi, our PDM partner has finished the first round of PDMs at 9 months. The sleeping space coverage at 9 months is 72%.
   
   
7. In PNG, our partner RAM has begun their distribution in the provinces scheduled for 2020, starting with Milne Bay. Over the coming year, 1.1m AMF-funded nets will be distributed in areas of Papua New Guinea with high risk of malaria. The 2019 campaign is now complete, with the final nets distributed in East New Britain.
   
   
8. In Togo, orders have been placed for 3.5 million nets to be produced for the 2020 campaign. On the basis of insecticide resistance data, half of the nets will be PBO nets. Registration is scheduled for August 2020.