Malaria: group partners Nasarawa Govt. to distribute 1.6m insecticide treated nets

Global Health Supply Chain and Breakthrough Action Nigeria is collaborating with the Nasarawa State Government, on malaria initiative to distribute 1.6 million insecticide treated nets to people of the state.

Dr Ibrahim Alhassan, Director of Public Health, Nasarawa Ministry of Health, disclosed this when he led a delegation on advocacy visit to the state Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, on Tuesday in Lafia.

Alhassan said that they were in the ministry to seek collaboration in the area of awareness creation on the need to sleep under the long lasting insecticide treated nets and to pave way for smooth distribution of the nets.

He said that sleeping under the nets remained one of the best ways of preventing malaria.

Alhassan said that apart from distribution of the nets, children under the age of five would also be given anti – malaria drugs during the exercise.

“Different strategies have been put in place to ensure reduction of the menace of malaria to the barest minimum, and one of these strategies is sleeping under the insecticide treated nets.

“The state is in the process of distributing 1.6 million nets, the last time we did the distribution was 2017. These treated nets need to be replaced once in three years.

“We will ensure that people of Nasarawa get another round of these treated nets especially pregnant women and children that are less than five years; they are the ones that suffer more from dire consequences of malaria,” he explained.

Responding, Mr Dogo Shammah, Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, said the ministry would use the cordial relationship it had with the media in the state to create awareness on the need to sleep under the treated nets.

Shammah, while commending the effort of the donors and other partners, pledged to support the cause in order to meet the health needs of the people of Nasarawa.

“This giant stride you are taking to protect pregnant women and children is quite commendable, we will support you, as a government, our duty is to safeguard the lives of people.

“One of the mandates of this ministry is dissemination of information on policies and programmes of the government, we will support you, we will engage the media to create awareness for the exercise,” he said.