In December 2020, as Pakistan and the world plunged into a pandemic, 8,000 volunteers in the country’s turbulent tribal areas managed to distribute nearly 1.5 million mosquito nets to more than 500,000 households in remote tribal areas of the country without any known Covid 19 infections. Their practices provide valuable lessons on how health authorities can work with communities and other stakeholders to prevent new health threats from disrupting ongoing battles with other life-threatening diseases, including malaria.

Pakistan’s malaria plan shifts to alternative media, including WhatsApp, radio, and mosque announcements to carry out public awareness campaigns. Since the pandemic first broke out in Pakistan in May and July 2020, when some project activities such as on-site data verification were postponed, social media channels were eventually used to share and verify data.

The distribution of LLIN is a key vector control measure designed to protect populations at risk of malaria in highly endemic areas. In the context of a continuing global pandemic, the results achieved in the fight against malaria in the past decade should not be compromised. Pakistan’s success in rapidly adjusting its malaria distribution and training strategy in extremely challenging and hard-to-reach areas of the country provides a lesson on how to not lose its battle against malaria despite the threat of continuing and future epidemics.

Kindly read the Pakistan Feature story published on the APLMA Website.