From John Bassey, Gusau
The Zamfara state ministry of Health has announced readiness to engage door -to-door approach to distribute over one million doses of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) medicines for children between the ages of three to 59 months in Zamfara state.
This was revealed by the Director Public Health of the ministry Dr. Yusuf Abubakar who spoke on behalf of the commissioner, Dr Nafisa Mohammed Maradun during a one-day Media parley organized by the ministry
The meeting was in collaboration with Global Health Supply Chain- Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) with support from International Rescue Commission (IRC) and other development partners.
Abubakar said the objective of the campaign was to ensure that all eligible children between the ages of three months and 59 months received the medicine in the peak Malaria season to prevent them from Malaria.
He said, to ensure the prevention of Malaria, the medicine would be given once a month over four months during the rainy season when Malaria transmission is highest.
He said, “The first circle of the campaign will commence from 3rd to 7th July this year”.
“Community Drug Distributors will visit your homes to issue the SMC medicines to eligible children”.
“Households must ensure that they leave somebody at home within this period”.
He encouraged the households to quickly attend to the drug distributors to enable them to visit as many households as possible in the community.
He stressed that the campaign would be led by the state’s Ministry of Health through the state’s Malaria Elimination Program, with GHSC-PSM providing technical assistance.
According to him, 6802 community volunteers, 599 health facilitators, 1,509 health workers, and 14 supervisors would participate in the exercise.
He called on journalists and media houses in the state to contribute their quota towards enlightening the general public on the importance of the vaccines.
In his remarks, Executive Secretary, Health Service Management Board, Dr. Mustafa Marafa commended the organisers of the parley, describing it as the best organized in the state.
Marafa also commended the efforts of the state government and the development partners towards Malaria eradication, calling on the general public to join hands in the fight against Malaria.
