The Nasarawa State Government has inaugurated the distribution of drugs for prevention of malaria from 977, 950 children in the State.
Mrs Janet Angbazo, Permanent Secretary (PS), Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, made the disclosure at a media parley on Friday in Lafia the state capital.
According to the Permanent Secretary, the media parley was to mark the commencement of the Seasonal Malaria Chemo prevention targeted children between ages three-to-59-months.
She added that this was the third year that the children were benefiting from the intervention by the state government supported by Malaria Consortium (MC).
The PS explained that MC is one of the largest international non-profit organizations working towards the elimination of malaria and other infectious diseases in Africa, Asia and America.
“This global intervention is endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a preventive strategy for the elimination of Malaria, particularly amongst children between the ages of three months to 59 months,” she added.
Mrs Angbazo further explained that the burden of malaria had reduced from 30 per cent to 15 per cent in the state since this intervention started in 2021-to-date.
The Permanent Secretary also commended Gov. Abdullahi Sule for his continued support to the ministry and for giving topmost priority to provision of better and accessible healthcare services to the people in the last four years.
The PS on behalf of the government and the people of the state lauded Malaria Consortium for this tremendous, life-changing support in the last 3-years.
She further said that the preventive measure is seasonal because it was the peak of malaria transmission which is in the rainy season.
Mrs Angbazo added that the drugs were technically known to be safe, effective as well as tolerated by children in the respective concentrations used in the formulation.
She further said that the ministry is deploying 11, 240 ad-hoc staff to administer the drugs to eligible children in every household across the 13 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
“The staff had been trained already and are categorised as those going from house to house to deliver the drugs known as the Community Drug Distributors (CDD), the Town Announcers, the Lead Mothers, the Supervisors, and the Health Facility Workers.
“The drugs will be distributed every month for a period of five months, from the month of June to October,” she added.
The PS, therefore, called on traditional and religious leaders, as well as the cooperation of mothers, caregivers and fathers for the success of the programme.
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