Malaria Consortium Targets 978,950 Eligible Children in Nasarawa State.
Amina Mohammed, Lafia.
Malaria Consortium has targeted 978,950 eligible children of 3 months to 59 months for the prevention of malaria during the peak of the rainy season in Nasarawa State.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Janet Angbazo stated this during a media parley of the seasonal malaria chemoprevention round three campaign in Lafia, the Northcentral Nasarawa capital.
She said the SMC intervention and other anti-malaria has drastically reduced the burden of malaria in the state to 15 percent.
Dr. Angbazo however reiterated the commitment of governor Abdullahi Sule towards health and other people oriented development interventions in the state.
“The government and the people of Nasrawa State appreciate deeply the malaria Consortium for their tremendous, life changing support in the last three years”.
She further stated that the drug is free courtesy of the Government of Nasarawa state and support from the Malaria Consortium through the “Give Well” (philanthropic funders).
Also peaking, the state program Manager, Hajia Hafsat Musa Baba, said that as the name implies, it is seasonal, because it happens during the peak malaria transmission period which is the rainy season.
“It also implies the use of drugs to prevent the diseases that is why it is call seasonal malaria chemo prevention”.
“SMC drugs are usually distributed are usually distributed to every eligible child in all household throughout the 13 LGAs of Nasarawa state”, she noted.
The senior M&E officer, Mr. Elisha Zechariah Maleeks, said that for the successful implementation of the 2023 campaign, about eleven thousand, two hundred and forty two(11,242) adhoc staff identified across the 13, local government have been trained and eqquipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them deliver the intervention.
“The staff are categorized into those going from house-to-house to deliver the drugs known as the Community Drug Distributors (CDD), the Town Announcers(TA), the Lead Mothers(LM), the Supervisors, and the Health Facility Workers(HFW)”.
He said the drug will be distributed every month for a period of 5 months, from the month of June to October.
Malaria Consortium is one of the largest International non-profit able organizations working towards the elimination of Malaria and other infectious diseases in Africa, Asia, and America.
