Nasarawa Targets 978,950 Children for Malaria Chemoprevention

Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia

The Nasarawa State government yesterday said it was targeting about 978,950 children of the ages of three months to 59 months for the round three Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign.

The Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Health, Dr. Janet Angbazo, disclosed this is Lafia, at a press briefing to flag off the SMC round three campaign in the state.

Angbazo explained that the SMC campaign was a global intervention endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a preventive strategy for the elimination of Malaria, particularly amongst children between the ages of three months to 59 months.

She said: “In the first two years of implementation of the SMC (2021, 2022), in conjunction with other anti-malarial interventions, the burden of Malaria in the state had reduced drastically to 15 per cent.

“In preparation for the successful implementation of this year’s campaign about 11,240 adhoc staff identified from every part of the state have been trained and equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them deliver the intervention.”

The permanent secretary added that the staff were categorised into those going from house-to-house to deliver the drugs known as the Community Drug Distributors (CDD), the Town Announcers, the Lead Mothers, the Supervisors, and the Health Facility Workers.

“As usual, the drug will be distributed every month for a period of five months, from the month of June to October,” Angbazo maintained.