Nasarawa to treat 1 million under-five children for malaria – Commissioner
By Faith AM
The Nasarawa State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Gaza Gwamna says the State government would administer malaria prevention drugs to more than 1 million children under five years in 2025 as part of efforts towards eliminating malaria from the state.
Gwamna disclosed at the media parley for the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) round five on Thursday in Lafia, the State capital.
The Commissioner explained that the state government targets 1,037,785 eligible populations, especially children under five years, to be administered the malaria drugs in its effort to reduce the prevalence to zero per cent.
He noted that the state, with the support of Malaria Consortium, World Health Organisation through the SMC programme, has been able to reduce the malaria burden to less than 15 per cent in the last five years.
According to him, “The drugs are administered free to healthy children aged -3-59 months across the 13 Local Government Areas of the State.
“11, 247 ad-hoc staff comprising Community Drug Distributors, Town Announcers, Supervisors, and Health Facility Workers have been trained and equipped to ensure smooth exercise”.
FMBlog learnt that Malaria Consortium is one of the largest international non-profit organisations working towards the elimination of malaria and other infectious diseases in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Gwamna further said that in the last five years of the implementation of the SMC and other anti-malaria interventions, the burden has reduced drastically to 15 per cent, particularly amongst children.
“From the creation of the State in 1996, the burden of malaria used to be 60 per cent but was reduced to 30 per cent in 2019 and now 15 per cent,” he said.
He called on residents of the State to regularly go for malaria tests to ascertain their status before treatment to avoid complications.
Gwamna said since the disease was responsible for the death of many people, the state government was investing towards eliminating it just as he warned that not all fevers are malaria-related and advised residents against self-medication to guard against complications.
“I will advise residents to visit any health facility in the State for testing and subsequent treatment if found positive. The public should sleep under treated mosquito nets”, adding that such practice is currently the best method to prevent malaria.
The commissioner further said that the media parley was to create awareness on how to reduce the burden of malaria in the state.
He, therefore commended journalists for their support of the campaign against malaria and appealed for its sustenance to enable them to win the fight.
Also speaking, the State Programme Manager of Malaria Consortium, Dr Kassim Musa-Khalid expressed gratitude to the State government for the partnership in the last four years.
He explained that the implementation for 2025 had started in June and expressed optimism that the fight against the disease would be won with the support of all stakeholders.
