The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, on Monday, said that the state is hoping to be the first to be declared malaria-free in the country by 2030.
Coker also said that the state is concerned with the fight against malaria and might consider employing carpenters who will help households in each ward of the local government fix the insecticide-treated nets recently distributed in the state.
The Society For Family Health, with the support of the State and Federal Government, as well as other development partners have just distributed about 2.5m treated mosquito nets in the state.
The commissioner disclosed this on Monday while speaking during a debriefing of the Insecticide Treated Nets Campaign in the state, held at the conference room of the Ministry of Health, Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital.
Coker noted that the zero malaria status feat attained by Egypt recently is a morale booster that the state too can be free of Malaria by 2030.
She said, “I am hoping that by 2030, Ogun State can be the first state that can be declared malaria-free.
“We have got a small population that is manageable, and if we work hard at it and put the right things in place, coupled with the new Malaria vaccine, we too can aspire and ensure that by 2030 even if we are not there, we must have moved very close to achieving this lofty dream.
“Egypt has shown us that it is possible, so we can follow in their footsteps too.”
Coker added that now that the people have the Insecticide Treated Nets, they must sleep inside them to reduce the burden of malaria in the state.
“What is also important to me now is to ensure that the people use the nets in their hands. How they will hang it now is what I am bothered about, I am thinking of deploying the resources that are already available within the system to support the people in hanging the net.
“I am also thinking that probably we can employ a carpenter for each ward for one month to help go around these households and help them in fixing these nets, we can do this if I can have the list of the households with the nets. If we don’t do this, we will still find out that we are still where we were,” she said.
The commissioner thanked the Society For Family Health as well as other development partners and the Federal Government for their support to the state in reducing the burden of malaria.
She pledged that the state would always consolidate on the gains of such vital collaboration to improve the healthcare of its citizens.
Speaking earlier, the Project Director, SFH, Dr John Ocholi, said that the ITN campaign aimed to distribute 2.9m treated nets but it only succeeded in distributing 2.5m to an average of over one million households in the state.
Ocholi said that the average size of a household in the state is 5.3 and that about 5.3 million people have so far been covered during the net distribution which ended last week.
He said that part of the challenges encountered which made it impossible for the campaign to record 100% revolves around economic issues.
Ocholi said, “When we told the people to go to the designated distribution points to go and pick up their nets, you will hear some of them complaining of not having money for transportation, some will tell you that they are hungry, that it is food that they want and not net.
“But we are always quick to also educate them that their health is paramount because if they are not healthy they cannot go to work or school. So, these are part of the challenges that made it impossible to achieve our 100% targets”.
He explained further that the distribution of the remaining nets will be done at the various government health facilities to the target group of pregnant women and children under five who are quite vulnerable to malaria attacks.