Speaking at the event in Ilorin, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who described the programme as the first of its kind in the state, said the aim was to prevent children and pregnant women from contracting malaria disease.
Represented by the state commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Razaq, the governor said that the state government adopted a house-to-house distribution of drugs to avert deadly malaria diseases for children between the ages of 3 months to 5 years, adding that the initiative was on chemoprophylaxis meant to prevent about 600,000 children in 11 methodologically selected local government areas.
“The initiative will cut across four months (July to October) with three circles in each month. We plan the programme against malaria diseases with a code called SPAQ, a combination of sulfadoxine, pyrimethamine and amodiaquine.”
He also said that each sachet of SPAQ contains four doses; “two tablets to be used at once on the first day and the remaining two to be used once daily for the next two days. This dosage is to be repeated every month for the next four months.”
Dr Razaq said that adopting a duo method of using the drug and sleeping under a mosquito treated net is more advisable to wholly prevent children and pregnant women from having malaria.
Knowing the hazard and havoc of malaria in children, Dr Razaq implored mothers and guardians to attend to the drug distributors and to ensure that appropriate and complete dosage is used to ascertain its efficiency and efficacy.
“Prevention they say is cheaper, that is why we are here today, to prevent malaria in Kwara State,” he said.
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