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More than 8,000 insecticide-treated bed nets have remained unused since 2013 in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region due to the refusal of the majority of the residents in the area to use the nets.

They claimed that the use of the net posed a threat to their health, such as skin rashes, apart from the heat that the net generates.

Mr. Robert Mpoan, of the Ejisu Disease Control Unit of the Ghana Health Services (GHS), disclosed these at a workshop here, to promote behavioral change on the use of the insecticide nets.

The programme was under the auspices of the Youth Development Research and Innovation Centre (YDRIC), a non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with the Ejisu Disease and Control Unit of the GHS.

Mr. Mpoan said there was the need to create awareness on the use of the nets to support the fight against malaria, hoping that by the end of March, this year, 70 per cent of Ghanaians would sleep in the nets.

Mr. Baah Achamfour, Ashanti Regional Co-ordinator of YDRIC, reminded the public that the nets had been treated with medicinal properties, and there was the need to rinse it for 24 hours before use to avoid any skin infection.

He urged the public to use malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT), which quickly diagnose malaria, providing evidence of malaria parasites in human blood.

Mr. Achamfour stressed that RDTs were simple and quick ways for health workers to test for malaria parasites in patient’s blood, and explained that the test could also help identify patients who do not have malaria but other diseases for timely treatment.

The project co-ordinator of YDRIC, Benjamin Arhin, said his outfit would collaborate with the health centers and schools to educate the public on the use of the RDTs and LLINs, to prevent malaria.