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Ebonyi State Malaria Programme Officer, Ministry of Health, Lawrence Nwankwo, has announced that distribution of the insecticide mosquito nets (ITN) will commence from January 27, 2023.
Nwankwo disclosed this at a media parley for the 2022 ITNs mass distribution campaign held at Integrated Health Programme (IHP) office in the state.
The media parley was organised by the Ebonyi State Government in collaboration with the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (US-PMI), USAID Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N), IHP and other malaria partners.
Nwankwo also noted that digital technology shall be deployed in three out of the 13 LGAs in the state to mobilise households for the net distribution.
Nwankwo, while urging the media to assist in ensuring that people are sensitized on the positive effect of sleeping inside treated nets, he disclosed that the prevalence of malaria in children below the age of five in the state was 30%.
He then urged the media to use their media offices to sensitize the masses on the importance of ITN and its usage to reduce malaria deaths in the state.
“We want to better inform you about the campaign in Nigeria and in Ebonyi. We want the media to be used to support the campaign”.
In his part, the representative of the PMI, Godson Kingsley disclosed that over 3 million estimated cases of malaria occur annually in the country.
He opined that two out of four persons are having malaria in the West African Sub-region including Nigeria.
Godson said with one out of five deaths from malaria globally occur in Nigeria while the prevalence under the age of five in Ebonyi State is 30 per cent.
He described malaria as a life-threatening disease transmitted to people through the bites of female mosquitoes.
“Malaria is a life-threatening disease transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
“According to available reports, there is a reduction in malaria prevalence in Nigeria from 27 per cent in 2015 to 23 per cent in 2018.
“The prevalence of malaria in children under the age of 5 in Ebonyi State is 30 per cent.
“Nigeria accounts for nearly 110 million clinically diagnosed cases per year, and an estimated 30 per cent of child and 11 per cent of maternal deaths each year are due to malaria.
“It is the commonest cause of absenteeism from schools, offices, farms, markets, etc resulting in lower productivity.
“Malaria exerts a huge social and economic burden on our communities and country, billions of naira are lost to malaria annually in form of treatment cost, prevention, and loss of man-hours,” he stated.
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