By PETER OKUTU
ABAKALIKI— EBONYI State government has invested N94 million on Roll-back malaria programme in the state, since the inception of Governor Martin Elechi’s administration in 2007.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sunday Nwangele, stated this during the commemoration of World Malaria Day.

According to him, the activities of the Roll-back malaria programme, which included distribution of long lasting mosquito insecticide treated nets to 97% households, provision of anti-malaria drugs and in-door residual spraying machines, among other interventions, has gradually led to the reduction of malaria, especially in the rural areas.

He pointed out that the state government having viewed malaria as a tropical disease that primarily affects both pregnant women and children, tackled the menace by  treatment of malaria, training and retraining of workers, provision of logistics and commodities.

for the effective treatment of malaria cases in hospitals across the primary health centres, secondary and tertiary facilities in the state.

He called on council chairmen in the state to immediately stop the construction of more Health centres in their areas even as he charged them to channel their resources towards the employment, training and payment of doctors and nurses working in the already existing Health centres within the LGAs.

He said:  “To roll back malaria from Ebonyi state, the rural health programmes which includes, the public private partnership that focuses on the rural communities who are really at higher risk at both maternal and child morbidities and mortalities has helped us a lot to curb the menace posed by the disease. Malaria is responsible for the 11% of maternal deaths and about 23% of child deaths, much higher in parts of the country and remote areas.

“We have got support from Global Funds. We get commodities like long lasting nets and ACT drugs. The Yakubu foundation, Federal Ministry of Health, Carter centre also provided us with nets. We have shared 1,106,126 million pieces of long lasting insecticide treated nets across the 13 LGAs. The Anti malaria commodities from USAID has enabled us fight and control malaria burden in the state.

“Assessment from independent sources has it that we have at least 97% coverage of all the households in Ebonyi state and to this end, we have also commenced a campaign to make sure that the owners sleep under the nets provided for them.”