Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, says that the malaria preventive strategies of his government and its partners has reduced the severe malaria burden among children in the state by six per cent.
AbdulRazaq made this known on Friday at the flag-off of the Seasonal Malaria Chemotherapy (SMC) ceremony in Ilorin.
Represented by the Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, Shehu Ndanusa, AbdulRazaq said that malaria remained one of the major causes of under-five morbidity and mortality with a prevalence of 23 per cent.
According to him, SMC is one of the proven malaria elimination intervention which was started by his administration in 2021.
“It involves the house-to-house distribution of malaria preventive medicine to children aged 3 months to 59 months in 11 eligible local government areas of Kwara State.
“This campaign is made possible by the commitment of this administration to the health and welfare of all kwarans, particularly our children and mothers.
“We continue to pay several health- related counterpart fund that have cemented the collaboration of our donors and partners, hence complementing the numerous health interventions from the Ministry of Health,” he said.
AbdulRazaq said that in 2023, the state government implemented the first-ever integrated Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention and Insecticide Treated Net campaign to increase access.
He noted that the impact of the malaria elimination strategies and innovations had been applauded globally and been adopted by other states.
The governor observed that the State remained committed to the quest to ensure zero malaria and would leave no stone unturned in achieving that.
“I want to charge our mothers to gladly receive our health volunteers; Community Distributors (CDD) who will be coming to your houses to give you the malaria preventive drug (SPAQ) and supervise the administration of the first dose to eligible children.
“Our mothers are to equally ensure that they complete the day-2 and day-3 drug in order to keep their children free from malaria, this rainy season.
“In addition, our mothers and fathers should ensure that they and their children continue to sleep under the Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) every night,” he advised.
In her welcome address, the Kwara Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina El-Imam explained that the flag-off was to make people aware of the need to get preventive drugs for their children.
She said that the drug was life-saving and administered free to children from three months to five years of age.
NAN
