Monday, September 28, 2020

FG, ADAMAWA GOVT TO DISTRIBUTE 2.8 MILLION TREATED MOSQUITO NETS NEXT MONTH



A total of 2.888million Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets are to be distributed to citizens across the 21 Local Government Areas in Adamawa state from 15th to 28th October, 2020.


This is part of efforts of the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) of the Federal Ministry of Health in partnership with Adamawa State Government, Catholic Relief Services(CRS) as well as Chemonics with funding support from Global Fund Malaria Grant towards eliminating Malaria.


Already, NMEP, Adamawa State Government and their partners have commenced process on how to take the delivery of the 2020 Insecticide Treated Nets(ITNs) through door to door approach to every household across the 21 LGAs.


According to NMEP and its partners, the concerted effort is geared towards making a mosquito net available to one out of two persons in every household, so as to sleep inside and be protected from mosquitoes that spread malaria.


It is in the light of the foregoing that the NMEP and its partners advised citizens to ensure that someone is available at home between 15th to 28th October, 2020, to provide information to the Mobilisation and Distribution Teams(MDT) and collect the nets.


More so, messages on how to use and care for the nets and on the dreaded Covid-19  pandemic preventive measures would be provided at the households during the exercise.


In this regard, the ITNs mass campaign is expected to be led by the State Ministry of Health through the State Malaria Elimination Programme with the CRS providing technical assistance as the implementing partner and with the NMEP providing coordination and oversight function.


Speaking at a One Day Media Parley organised by the State Ministry of Health and held at AUN Hotel in Yola on Monday, the Commissioner Ministry of Health and Human Resources, Professor Abdullahi Isa, disclosed that what they used to do was going house to house, mobilising people to come and line up to collect the nets.


The Commissioner who was represented by the Director Public Health in the Ministry, Isaac Kadala, explained that they had to change their strategies due Covid-19, saying that it is going to be a risk to line up people as done in the past in order to redeem their nets.


He said that necessary arrangements have been put in place to take the nets to the peoples' households so as not to expose people to risk, assuring that every household in the state is going to get the nets no matter how the difficult terrain.


According to him, Malaria kills more than any other disease including Covid -19, adding that the programme will continue despite the outbreak of the pandemic, and appealed for support from the media to enable them achieve their set objectives.


In her remarks, the representative of NMEP, Federal Ministry of Health, Nkoye Ogar, said effective use of the nets will contribute enormously in the reduction of Malaria prevalence not only in Adamawa but the country in general. 


Likewise, in her presentation, the Consultant Technical WorkStream with Catholic Relief Services, Jessie Okoro, said that the media can play critical role in the fight against Malaria, and called on the participants to contribute their part towards eliminating the disease.




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