By Victoria Ojeme

Keffi—The Federal Ministry of Health has taken delivery of 800,000 malaria rapid diagnostic test RDT, kits for distribution to nine states of Nasarawa State, Sokoto, Zamfara, Ebonyi, Abia, Delta, Enugu, Plateau and Yobe.

The kits provided by US-based diagnostic device makers, Alere, and Malaria No More, is part of two million kits the US government promised to provide in the next two years on the platform of the US President’s Malaria Initiative.

Mosquito

Speaking at the handover of the kits at a primary health centre in Keffi, Nasarawa State, the Director of Mission at the US Agency for International Development, Michael Harvey said the kits would help states’ efforts in treating malaria the right way.

“Our commitment to this partnership is to support the distribution of the test kits to all health facilities across Nasarawa and eight other states, along with the life-saving medicines regularly donated by the American people for timely malaria treatment.”

RDT kits are recommended for easy testing for malaria before treatment.

The National Malaria Eradication Programme, which backs RDTs, said testing before treating malaria would reduce wastage of Artemisinin-Combination Therapy, the standard drugs for treating malaria.

Also speaking, the Country Representative for Standard Diagnostics, producers of the kits, Abdulrahman Yusuf said “You have a situation where people are treated for diseases suspected to be malaria but not malaria.”

On his part, the Director of Public Health Initiatives at Alere, Duncan Blair also explained that accurate, reliable and accessible diagnostic tests allow medication to be provided in a timely manner as well as fast track strategies towards eradicating malaria.

Head of Case management, National Malaria Eradication Programme, Dr. Godwin Ntadom stressed that RDT results are not inferior to microscopy, adding, that by 2020, it is expected that out of 100 people only 5 will test positive to malaria.