Every Household In Nasarawa State To Get Treated Mosquito Nets As State Govt, Partners Begin Mass Campaign
Eric M Kuju
Every household in Nasarawa State is set to get insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs) as the government of Nasarawa State in collaboration with the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (US-PMI) has concluded plans to begin a mass replacement campaign.
Addressing pressmen during a media parley which held on Monday 17, January 2022) at the Nasarawa State Infectious Disease and Research Centre, Lafia, Nasarawa State’s Commissioner for Health, Pharmacist Ahmed Baba Yahaya disclosed that over two million insecticide treated nets have already been purchased and are set to be distributed from Monday February 7 to Tuesday February 15, 2022.
According to him, the distribution of the nets will be preceded by registration of households from Thursday January 20 to Friday January 28, 2022. He called on all residents of Nasarawa State to ensure they are captured by the registration officers that will be moving round and ensure they collect net cards that will be exchanged for mosquito nets when distribution commences.
The Commissioner also gave assurances that about 9,548 ad-hoc staff have been adequately trained to register and distribute the ITNs to the populace such that no household in Nasarawa State is left out and in the proportion of two persons to one mosquito net.
Speaking further, representative of the Global Health Supply Chain, Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM), Kingsley Godson, disclosed that 2,060,000 insecticide treated nets (ITNs) were purchased at the cost of about $5.9 million.
He said the campaign team has devised strategies to make sure the huge resources committed to the campaign are not wasted but are judiciously used to see to the eradication of malaria in Nasarawa State, Nigeria and the world at large.
The strategies according to him include the employment of technology to check sharp practices by ad-hoc staff or beneficiaries and provision of adequate security for the ad-hoc staff, beneficiaries and even the nets.
He commended the Nasarawa State Government under the leadership of Engr. Abdullahi Sule for the support they have provided to see to the success of the campaign.
In his words: “This campaign is done once in every three years and in Nasarawa State, this is the third time we are doing it. One was done in 2015, another in 2018 and this one in 2022 but we have never gotten the kind of support we got from the State Government during this campaign.”
Other persons who were present at the media parley include the Permanent Secretary, Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, Dr. Janet Angbazo, the Nasarawa State Director Public Health, Dr. Ibrahim Adamu Alhassan and Mr. Thomas Ohobu the Nasarawa State Coordinator Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N).
The National Malaria Elimination Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health was represented at the event by Mrs Jumoke Osadere.