Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
Malaria Consortium, an international non-governmental organization has tasked Anambra State Government led by Governor Charles Soludo to sustain the fight against Malaria in Anambra State.
The group gave the task, Friday, during the 2022 Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) Mass Distribution debriefing and report presentation, marking the end of the 2022 distribution exercise in the state.
It urged the Government to strengthen post campaign social behavioral change with emphasis on pregnant women and children within the age of five to curb the menace of malaria-induced deaths among the two groups in the state.
Presenting the report of the free ITN distribution at Jerome Udorji Secretariat, Awka, Anambra State, over the weekend, Mrs Laitan Adeniyi, Campaign Manager, Malaria Consortium ITN Mass Distribution for Anambra, stated that over 7.4million individuals from 1, 245,548 households across the 21 LGA of the state benefited from the distribution exercise.
According to her, “1,593 devices were provisioned, configured and deployed for the ITN campaign and a technological application was used to track household mobilization activities.”
She further explained that the real-time data from the application was analysed and used for informed monitoring, identifying bottlenecks, deploying solutions and support to personnel on the field.
Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike, commended the donors and assured that the State Government would ensure that the usage of the nets are sustained in the state.
He said the use of technology in the ITN distribution proved effective in the exercise and assured that the State Government would adopt the same approach to implement other policies of the state.
“Malaria Consortium did a very good job in ensuring that residents in the state get the nets. The technology utilized in the process was effective. It is something that is wonderful, used to track the process.”
While he described the net as a vital tool for preventing Malaria, he charged the people to ensure they sleep inside the nets in their households rather than use it for other purposes not beneficial to the health.