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From Paul Orude Bauchi
Bauchi State Government in collaboration with Malaria Consortium has flagged off the 2023 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign for the prevention of malaria in children.
This year’s campaign targets a total of 2.2 million eligible children aged three to 59 months. The programme, which began yesterday, will end on Tuesday, August 18.
Speaking at a media parley in his office on Friday, the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of Malaria, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and HIV/AIDS (BACATMA), Dr. Sani Mohammed Dambam, disclosed that the SMC campaign is happening simultaneously with distribution of insecticide treated nets (ITN) for household use to prevent malaria.
Dambam expressed joy that Bauchi was adjudged the best-performing State in SMC implementation in 2022, assuring the Malaria Consortium that this 2023 campaign would supersede that of last year.
He attributed the successes recorded to the commitment of Governor Bala Mohammed to the provision of affordable and accessible healthcare service delivery to the citizens.
Dambam said the SMC campaign for 2023 covers all the 20 Local Government Areas of the state, adding that it would be repeated for four more rounds while the rainy season lasted.
Speaking earlier in a presentation on the rollout of the SMC exercise, the Bauchi State Malaria Programme Coordinator, Kabiru Mohammed Algamawy, disclosed that the burden of Malaria had reduced by 12.5% from 2020 to 2022.
Algamawy who stated that previous campaigns had also reduced the Out-of-Pocket Expenditure to treat Malaria, said that 25,000 Adhoc personnel had been recruited for the 2023 SMC campaign.
He said the ad-hoc staff would all be paid monthly stipends/allowances as another way of creating employment in the state.
He opined that preventive medication should be given at monthly intervals for four months to children aged 3 to 59 months.
