The Zamfara Government has said it will distribute 3.1 million Insecticides Treated-Mosquito Nets (ITN) to the residents of the state as part of its efforts to eliminate malaria there.
The Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Yahaya Kanoma, said this at the media parley on integrated ITN and Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) drugs distribution campaign on Tuesday in Gusau.
The Newsmen reports that the meeting was organized by the State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP) as part of its efforts to ensure active media involvement in the fight against malaria.
Kanoma said that the 3.1million ITN and malaria drugs were provided through the partnership between the state government and the US President’s Malaria Initiative.
He said that they were to be distributed to people free of charge.
“The state government with the support of development partners has commenced the process of the 2020 malaria elimination campaign across the state.
“Very soon, we are going to flag off the distribution of ITN across the 147 wards of the 14 local government areas. We want to make sure that each person in the state gets one of the treated mosquito nets.
“A total of 3.1million ITN will be distributed to the people through mass campaign while the SMC drugs are targeted to protect 1,020,102 children between three months to 59 months from contracting malaria throughout the period of malaria risk”, he said.
Kanoma commended the SMEP for organizing the meeting and for the support given on malaria eradication in the state.
He noted that the role of the media could not be underestimated in the campaign against malaria and other diseases.
“I am using this medium to commend the support and the cooperation of the media to the ministry, especially, on enlightening the general public on various activities on health care delivery,” he said.
In a presentation, the state Health Educator, Bashir Garba, said the objective of the campaign was to ensure that for every two persons in the state, there was one bed-net to sleep inside.
Garba said that it would ensure that every eligible child receives four cycles of SMC medicine to prevent malaria in the rainy season.
He said that the distribution would be done in 1,111 distribution points across the 14 local government areas.
He added that the SMC drugs would be given door to door in four cycles to all eligible children between three months and 59 months at their households.
He added that the households would be registered between Aug. 4 and Aug. 12, while the distribution would start from Aug. 24 to Sept. 2.
