The Nasarawa State Government in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) with funding support from the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (U.S.-PMI) is set to distribute 2,060,000 insecticide treated nets.
State Commissioner of Health pharm. Ahmed Yahaya, started this in Lafia at a one-day media parley for 2022 campaign for mass distribution of insecticide treated nets.
The Commissioner added that provision of quality and affordable healthcare services is one of the topmost priority of Governor Abdullahi Sule-led administration.
He explained that the state government is determined to partner with any organisation toward ensuring better healthcare services in line with global best practice.
Yahaya said based on studies and facts, mosquitoes, carrier of Malaria, can only be tackled if people sleep under the insecticide treated nets properly and consistently.
He added that the government had already trained personnels at the Local Government Areas (LGAs) as well as the state level preparetory to mass distribution of the nets.
The Commissioner added that personnel from the ministry would commence registration and issuance of cards to household across the 13 LGAs on January 20 to 28.
He also said that after the registration, the distribution of the nets would commence from February 7-15, 2022.
He, therefore, promised that ministry would put machinery in place to ensure that the nets were effectively distributed to every household.
Speaking, Director Public Health in the Nasarawa State ministry of health Dr Ibrahim Alhassan, said the media parley was aimed at building the capacities of media professionals on technicality involved in passing effective messages toward eliminating Malaria.
He said it would assist in informing the public on the distribution of the nets and the necessity to use them properly when collected.
The Director Public Health said the prevalent rate of Malaria in the state had dropped from above 47 per cent in 2015 to 14 per cent in 2018 as a result of combined efforts and support from the media.
He added that malaria is not just a health challenge, but also an economic matter, as it has led to loss of lives and resources that could have been use for other purposes.
He expressed gratitude to the media for their support over the years, adding that the media had contributed immensely in reducing Malaria from being a leading health challenge in the country.
Also, Technical Team Lead on Insecticide Treated Nets Campaign in the state, Kingsley Godson, said the state government and partners were spending huge amount of money in procurement of the nets and distributed free.
He explained that the ITN were procured at the cost N2.98 billion to be distributed to every household in the state.
Godson said that technological devices would be deployed to generate data, track nets and net cards as well as personnel in the field to ensure effective distribution.
He said that a total of 9,548 personnel would be engaged and trained for the exercise in the state.
Godson, therefore, urged the people to make use of the nets when distributed to them to justify the huge investment.
