From Esther Akaa, Lafia
The Nasarawa State government says it has administered malaria prevention drugs to 775, 905 children under the ages of five years across the 13 local government areas of the state in 2021.
The state Commissioner of Health, Ahmed Yahaya stated this at a media parley for the flag-off of the second round of the Seasonal Malaria Chemo-prevention (SMC) campaign, held Friday in Lafia, the state capital.
Yahaya said that about 816,532 between the ages of 3-59 months have been targeted in the 2nd year of the SMC Intervention programme being implemented in the state.
According to him, the state has keyed into the SMC intervention strategy which has been on-going in the Sahel and Savanna Regions of the Country in the last 10years, aimed at reducing the prevalence of Malaria, particularly amongst children less than 5 years.
“In the first year of implementation, over 10,000 personnel were involved and a total of 775,905 children between ages 3-59 months across the 13 LGAs. In this 274 year of SMC implementation, 816,532 children have been targeted, and over 9,000 personnel have been engaged.
“The burden of Malaria has continue to drop from 60% since the creation of the State to 30°o in 2010 and to the current 14.6% in the recent survey in 2018.
“This achievement is as a result of the consistent effort put in by the leadership of the state, the State Ministry of Health, Healthcare Workers as well as support from Implementing Partners, through various strategies such as: Enhanced Environment & Vector Control Activities, Improved Utilisation of Insecticide Treated bed Nets (ITNs), Appropriate Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC), Improved Case Management, Improved Diagnosis & Prompt, Appropriate Treatment.
“SMC is a preventive intervention focused on children under five which is the intermittent administration of full courses of an antimalarial medicine during the high malaria season to prevent malarial illness with the objective of maintaining therapeutic antimalarial drug concentrations in the blood throughout the period of greatest malarial risk,” he said.
The commissioner attributed the success to support from partners and enhanced environmental and vector control activities, improved utilisation of insecticide treated beds nets (ITNs).
He said the state government was doing everything possible to eliminate malaria completely from the state and achieve zero prevalence in the next few years.
On her part, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Janet Angbazo said malaria was caused by a bite of a female anopheles mosquito and its consequences is seen more amongst pregnant women, children of less than five years.
She explained that malaria was capable of causing intrauterine growth retardation of the unborn child, abortion, pre-termed labour, renal failure and death.
He added that malaria was dangerous and responsible for the death of so many people which was why the state government, in collaboration with partners have invested a lot toward its elimination.
She, therefore, advised the public to endeavour to sleep under insecticide treated nets everyday.
Earlier, Director Public Health in the ministry, Dr Ibrahim Alhassan, said the media parley was to create awareness on how to reduce the burden of malaria in the state.
“This media parley is organised to engage media professionals to ensure that the campaign against malaria reaches the nooks and crannies of the state.
“We are enrolling out different strategies to see how we curb the menace of Malaria in the state,” he said.
He, lauded the media for their continuous support to the campaign towards the elimination of malaria and appealed for its sustenance.
Responding, Chairman, Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nasarawa State Council, Isaac Ukpoju, assured that the message will be propagated to the nooks and crannies of the state.