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From: BillyGraham Abel, Yola
Adamawa State Commissioner for health, Dr. Fatima Atiku Abubakar, has said the replacement campaign for Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) in the state would commence at the end of the October, after the exercise scheduled for 2014 was halted by the activities of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.
She said that the exercise would go a long way in checking the menace of malaria in the state.
Dr. Atiku made the remark, on Tuesday, at a LLINs sensitisation workshop for media personnel in Yola, Adamawa State.
Dr. Atiku, who was represented by the Director of Public Health of the ministry of health, Dr. Bulki Dilli, said the distribution exercise was last done in 2010 but could not hold in 2014 due to insurgency.
The commissioner said it is not just about the distribution but the effective utilisation of the nets to prevent the deadly effect of malaria on residents of the state.
She called on the media and other partners to help in making known the effective usage of the nets and to report any diversion of the material to the ministry.
The representative of the Federal ministry of health, Mrs. Ezechukwu Adaolise said, “97% of Nigerians especially children under the age of five and pregnant women suffer from the most common preventable public health problem, malaria, leading to absenteeism from school, offices, farms, markets, which causes low productivity and severe social and economic burden on communities and loss of billions of naira in treatment cost, prevention and loss of man power.”
The sensitisation campaign which was organised by the Catholic relief services observes that media as critical partner in Adamawa would help in fostering the goal of distributing about 2.4 million nets to every household in the state with each household having at least a net per two persons and a maximum of four nets per household.
The replacement campaign with the slogan, ‘One Net card, One net’ has an objective of engaging the media in the campaign for the effective use of LLINs through reporting and to ensure that the nets get to the desired users in the state.
Mrs. Ezechukwu said the nets were designed to maintain the utmost biological efficacy against mosquitoes for three years particularly where they are used under recommended conditions adding that media with the help if the media, the people of Adamawa and Nigerians will adopt a net use culture and a positive, long term and sustainable change and the media has the power to sustain the essence of the campaign through interesting and educative human interest stories.
