By Peter Duru, Makurdi

Indications have emerged that Benue State government has given out over six million insecticide treated nets to residents to fight the scourge of Malaria in the state.

The State Programme Manager for Malaria in the Benue State Ministry of Health and Human Services, Mrs. Susan Abege made this known Thursday during the motorised campaign and sensitisation to the five major markets in Makurdi the Benue state capital in commemoration of the 2024 World Malaria Day with the theme ‘Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world.”  

She said the state’s campaign was already paying off with the prevalence rate of Malaria in state droping from from 43 percent to 18 percent.

She said the Ministry of Health was also collaborating with Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of government and other partners to ensure that the scourge was wiped out from the state.

She said: “Benue State government in collaboration with partners has rolled out several programmes like the Long Lasting Insecticidal, LLI, Nets Campaign where we have given out six million nets to Benue populace. We have the seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention. This is an intervention we give to under five children from three to 59 months for the prevention of Malaria.

“And then we collaborate with other agencies like Ministry of Education where we directed that every child going to boarding school must take a net to school to avert Malaria attack. We also work with Benue State Environment Sanitation Agency, urging them to instill environmental cleanliness in the people. We also carry out community dialogue, like as we celebrate today we have activities lined up like going to the radio station to sensitise the people about Malaria and today we are going on motorised rally to five major markets in Makurdi to sensitise them on Malaria.

“Tomorrow we have the advocacy and social mobilisation core groups who will go to the communities in the 23 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of the state to conduct community dialogues in the communities. That has really helped in the sense that we had the prevalence rate of Malaria in 2015 which was 43 percent, but as we speak it has dropped to 18 percent. And they are conducting Malaria Indicative Survey this year, and we are anxiously waiting for the result because we know it will further go down.”

On his part, Dr. Victor Onah of the Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria in Benue state said several community based activities to drive down the scourge were ongoing.

Dr  Onah said, “With our support to the State Ministry of Health, we have been able to conduct different community activities whereby we enlighten members of the communities on the priority behaviours of Malaria and the chief of it is to sleep inside insecticide treated nets. We also encourage pregnant women to go to the hospital to get health treatment.

“The fact is that most people in communities are aware of Malaria now and know that they need to seek prompt care from health facilities. And of course people are imbibing the culture of completing the treatment irrespective of how they feel as they take the drugs.

“So this day is another opportunity for us to sustain the effort to get the people drive down the prevalent rate of Malaria.”

Dr. Uwem Udoh, the State Coordinator for Presidential Malaria Initiative, PMI, for States said PMI for States is working closely with the Benue State government to ensure the successful fight against the scourge of Malaria in the state.

According to him, “we are the flagship partner, we have other partners like Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria and others. We are the service providers, we provide services in  Benue State hospitals, the Primary Healthcare Centers, PHCs, and General Hospitals. We work with the State Government to ensure that we try to eliminate Malaria from the state which all countries are working towards.

“On this day we are here with the State to do the road walk to sensitise the state on the scourge of Malaria and where they can get services across the state.”

The World Health Organization, WHO, Benue State Coordinator, Dr. Mohammed Abdulkarim, said the emphasis was to sensitise the populace that Malaria could be prevented and the fact that Malaria vaccine would be rolled our soon.

He said: “The focus this year is to sensitise the people that Malaria can be prevented especially now that we are going towards the rainy season when we usually see upsurge in cases of Malaria.

“Also this is an opportunity to sensitise the people that very soon we will have the Malaria vaccine coming out. Two highly effective vaccines have been made available across the world and Nigeria has been selected as one of the countries to pilot that Malaria vaccination. It would soon be rolled out and once we are ready to do that, I am sure that the State Malaria Programme will sensitise the population.”