Social marketing of insecticidetreated bed nets: the case for Pakistan

With an estimated half a million cases of malaria annually in Pakistan, and drug resistant cases on the increase, more practical preventive measures such as insecticide-treated bednets are essential. Social marketing through commercial channels has become an important cost-effective means to deliver health products and services to low income people and to motivate them to use these services. It has been demonstrated that social marketing of insecticide-treated bednets has saved the lives of millions of people in malaria-endemic regions at a cost as low as US$ 2 per person. Social marketing could be an effective strategy for getting insecticide-treated nets to poor communities in Pakistan who are most vulnerable to malaria.