Malaria: KDSG distributes N5.5m insecticide treated nets
Kaduna State Governor Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna State has officially launched the distribution of N5.5 million free insecticide treated nets to residents to fight malaria.
The distribution, which took place from yesterday, July 7 will end on July 18 in all the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
In a speech at the launch on Wednesday in Kaduna, el-Rufai urged residents not to take the exercise for granted.
He expressed profound appreciation to the project funding partners, while promising massive campaign and sensitisation to serve as a forerunner to the distribution.
He described the distribution of the nets as part of the State Government’s efforts to ensure healthy living in the state.
“Whatever we can do to stop malaria should be a collective effort from all.
“We are happy a vaccine has been introduced and the only way to curb malaria is by sleeping in the nets,” the Governor said.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Mohammed-Baloni, said that the state recorded 37.2 per cent drop in malaria cases in 2021.
She said that the figure represented a significant improvement compared with the 60.3 per cent reduction in 2020.
“The malaria programme has the highest budgetary approval in the state’s annual operational plan.
“We have also achieved 68 per cent refill rate order for all anti-malaria commodities,” Mohammed-Baloni said.
She also said that the State Government had spent N298 million on procuring anti-malaria commodities, through Health Supplies Management Agency.
“We hope to strengthen inter-sector and inter-agency collaboration to achieve integration in the fight against malaria in the state,’’ she further said.
She said that the State Government also distributed 3,333 artesunate injections to 746 health facilities in 29 secondary and tertiary hospitals.
The Commissioner said that the measure was part of Government’s efforts aimed at preventing the spread of malaria in the state.
She thanked the Local Government Chairmen for rehabilitating the council warehouses for the exercise and urged residents to fully utilise the malaria services.
In a goodwill message, the state WHO Coordinator, Dr. Sani Audu, said that providing basic intervention was necessary to malaria elimination.
The Managing Director, Society for Family Health, Mr Ernest Nwokolo, promised that the organisation would partner the State Government toward the reduction of malaria in the state.
Nwokolo called for equitable distribution of the mosquito nets to achieve the desired objective.
