Efforts to reduce the burden of malaria in Taraba state have begun to yield results as the state government, in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with funding support from the Global Fund Malaria Project has mapped out plans to embark on mass distribution of insecticides treated Nets (ITNs).
The exercise which is scheduled to commence on the 14th of September, as gathered by The Trumpet, will be flagged off by the State Governor, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku.
The malaria campaign manager of the CRS, Orezi Adhekojibo, who dropped the hint at a media parley in Jalingo, the state capital yesterday, said over 2 million Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) would be distributed across the entire six local government councils of the state.
The process, which according to her will cover the 168 wards of the state, “will be done on a door-to-door basis across all the sixteen local government councils of the state.”
Beckoning at Journalists to help disseminate accurate information that would enable beneficiaries make use of the nets as expected, the mass campaign, “is to ensure that for every two persons in the state, there is one-bed net to sleep inside.”
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Orezi who went further to state that household registration and distribution will commence from 15th to 26th of September” said, “households must ensure that they leave somebody within this period to collect nets.”
The mass campaign which is being led by the state ministry of health through the state malaria elimination programme is to be provided technical support by CRS.
The mass campaign which has kicked started, she said is one of the major fashion-out plans to get the nets across to the doorsteps of the people in the nooks and crannies of the state, hence the need for the media to bring it to the front burner.
Aligning her weight to that of Orezi, the National Coordinator- National Malaria Elimination Program, Dr Perpetual Uhomoibhi, said Nigeria contributes the highest volume of global malaria burden globally.
Citing how the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic threatened the implementation of some health interventions and how it can lead to the possibility of losing gains achieved in the fight against malaria in the country, all hands, as opined by her must be on deck to eliminate malaria from the state and the country at large Sad that Nigeria “accounts for 27% malaria cases and 32% of malaria-related deaths globally” she charged the media to tread extra legitimate miles to dispel the rumours and misconceptions discouraging some people from sleeping inside the nets.
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