By Simdi Gloria
Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has launched the distribution of 2.3 million mosquito nets house to house for residents across the state in a bid to prevent the malaria disease among the people.
He noted that this became necessary as more than 50% of health complications reported from public hospitals result from poorly-treated malaria cases reiterating his commitment to the global fight against the disease that experts say is the number one killer in sub-Saharan Africa.
At the official launch of house-to-house distribution of 2.3million insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) which the state received from Global Funds as a result of its payment of relevant counterpart funds.
Abdulrazaq said, “A little over one year ago, we invested millions of naira in paying counterpart funds to key into various basic healthcare programmes. N82m of that amount was meant for the anti-malaria initiative of the Global Fund. What we have in return are 2.3million insecticide-treated nets worth over N3.3bn, among other socio-economic benefits.
Today, we are flagging off the house-to-house distribution of these nets across our state. To do this, we have engaged at least 5,000 persons who will get paid for doing so.
“Malaria is a major killer disease in sub-Saharan Africa. It has also proven to have adverse economic effects. This is why we are so interested in fighting it. However, it is cheaper to prevent malaria than to cure it. One major way of preventing the killer disease is the use of insecticide-treated nets. It is safe for use and I urge our people to use it.”
The Governor commended all partners, volunteers, and net advocates, especially the former Minister of State for Health Hajia Amina Ndalolo for their efforts in the campaign.
He then proceeded to sleep in a demo mosquito-netted bed at the event — a gesture to show the safety of the ITN and encourage citizens to use them.
Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire, while commending the support of the governor said, “Kwara State is one of the three states selected to benefit from the 2020 mass insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) distribution campaigns aimed at delivery of 2.3 million ITNs to beneficiaries with the support of the Global Fund. Furthermore, two LGAs (Asa and Moro) will simultaneously be used to carry out the New Net Project evaluation that will involve monitoring the impact of the new generation ITNs on malaria indicators.”
All-female political appointees in the state were encouraged to promote the use of ITNs to enable the state to achieve the result of its investment in the health sector, from the Former Minister of health and Kwara Net Ambassador Hajia Amina.
In their goodwill messages, Ernest Nwokolo of the Society for Family Health, Diwe Ekweremadu of Catholic Relief Services, and Abdullahi Nageri, the Programme Manager State Elimination Programme, commended the state government for the partnership which they said had yielded positive results.
The Governor was urged to continue to push forward the campaign to eliminate Malaria in Kwara State.
NEWSIE EVENTS MEDIA TEAM Follow Us On Twitter,Instagram & Facebook
@NewsieEvents,I.G newsieevents, Facebook Newsie Events