Kwara State governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has urged mothers in the state to receive and administer to eligible children the malaria preventive drug to be distributed from house to house in the state.
The governor said that malaria preventive strategies and the efforts of government and partners have led to a considerable reduction in the burden of severe malaria to 6 per cent among children in the state.
AbdulRazaq stated this on Friday in Ilorin, the state capital, at the flag off of 2025 seasonal malaria chemotherapy.
The governor who was represented at the event by the Commissioner for Youth Development, Usman Ndanusa, stated that malaria is a major public health concern in Nigeria and a significant cause of under-five morbidity and mortality with a prevalence of 23 per cent in under-five-year-old children.
According to him, SMC is one of the proven malaria elimination interventions which was started by this administration in 2021.
“It involves the house-to-house distribution of malaria preventive medicine to children aged 3-59 months in 11 eligible LGA of Kwara State.
“This campaign is made possible by the commitment of this administration to the health and welfare of all kwarans, particularly our children and mothers.
“We continue to pay several health related counterpart funds that have cemented the collaboration of our donors and partners, hence complementing the numerous health interventions from the Ministry of Health,” he said.
AbdulRazaq stated that in 2023, the State government implemented the first-ever integrated Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention and Insecticide Treated Net campaign to increase the access.
He noted that the impact of the malaria elimination strategies and innovations have been applauded globally and have been adopted by other states.
The governor observed that the State remains committed in the quest to ensure zeromalaria and will leave no stone unturned in achieving this.
“I want to charge our mothers to gladly receive our health volunteers; Community Distributors who will be coming to your houses to give you the malaria preventive drug and supervise the administration of the first dose to eligible children.
“Our mothers are to equally ensure that they complete the day-2 and day-3 drug in order to keep their children free from malaria this rainy season.
“In addition, our mothers and fathers should ensure that they and their
children continue to sleep under the Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) every night,” he advised.
In her welcoming address, Dr Amina El-Imam, Kwara state Commissioner for Health explained that the flag-off is to create awareness for people on the need to get the preventive malaria drugs for their children.
She warned that malaria continue to kill children in Africa, adding that the drug is life-saving and administered free for children three months to five years of age.
Representatives of the National Malaria Immunization programme and the World Health Organization (WHO) while speaking at the event, appreciated the state government for taking ownership of the programme.
They encouraged mothers to allow the SMC teams to their homes and to use the drugs accordingly.