Malaria: 3.1m Ogun Residents to Get Free Treated Nets

James Sowole in Abeokuta

Ogun State Government in collaboration with Global Fund Malaria (GFM) and Society for Family Health (SFH), will distribute no fewer than 3.1 million Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) to households in the state.
The Project Director, Global Fund Malaria, SFH, Mr. John Ocholi, who disclosed this at a media engagement in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, decried the low level of insecticide treated nets usage in the state, saying that Ogun currently records 30 percent usage in Nigeria.
The campaign which mainly captured pregnant women and children under 5 years, is being executed in collaboration with the Society for Family Health (SFH), National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), as well as the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) among other malaria partners as part of the continued efforts towards eliminating the scourge and make Nigeria the third malaria free country in Africa.
He said the essence of the free distribution of the insecticide treated net is to combat the scourge of malaria and make the country achieve zero pandemic like Egypt and Cape Verde in Africa.
Ocholi explained that the campaign would be executed in a double phase approach beginning with the households’ mobilization across the 20 local government areas, with the fixed-point net distribution centre.
While explaining the efficacy of the ITN, Ocholi said that “since the beginning of the use of insecticide treated nets, the malaria prevalence has reduced from 45% in 2010 to 27% in 2015, meaning three people having malaria parasite in every 10 people, but this has scaled down to between 21 or 22% in 2021, 2022 with two people testing positive to malaria from 10 people”.
He added that the use of ITN will help in reducing financial burden committed to medical care of malaria and therefore makes more resources available for the household to take care of other basic needs like feeding, accommodation, schooling, among others.
Ocholi said: “It is against this background that in partnership with the Ogun State Government, 3.1m insecticide treated nets will be distributed to household across the state.
“We have 14,000 personnel that will help with this exercise and 1,400 distribution points for collection of the nets and so we urge the media to help us spread this information to create awareness”.
The Project Director however, disclosed further that the ITN distribution would be targeted and therefore household or settlements in areas where the prevalence of malaria is deemed lower according to the available data would not get these nets.
Ocholi stated that the pregnant women and children under five years in these depriortised local governments or areas would be asked to go to the government health facilities around them for their nets.
He said that that the distribution of the net would focus more on the rural areas and communities where the risk of the disease is higher.
Ocholi said: “The message here is that families, households should register for the ITN when the registration begins and go for the collection.
“They should collect it, follow all the instructions and should sleep in it to protect them from mosquito bite and together we can win the war against malaria”.
Speaking earlier, the State Health Educator, Dr. Olubukola Omotosho, said the household registration and mobilisation would run from October 31 to November 6, 2024 while the net distribution starts on November 19.

She noted that during registration, the mobilizer will generate a token or net card which each household will use to collect the nets when the distribution begins.

Daniel Gbue, Media Communication Manager of the group in his presentation said that malaria kills nine persons every hour in the world and that for every five deaths caused by malaria, one is from Nigeria.

Gbue also said that malaria has been found to be common cause of absenteeism in schools and offices, saying that this is why people must join hands with the government and other partnering organisations to embrace the use of the ITN, while also embracing a clean and healthy environment to battle scourge of malaria to a standstill.