Malaria: Kwara Govt. Reduce Burden By 6% — Gov AbdulRazaq

By Fatima Mohammed-Lawal

Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, has submitted that malaria preventive strategies and the efforts of government and partners have led to considerably reduction in the burden of severe malaria to 6 percent among children in Kwara.

AbdulRazaq who was represented by Kwara Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, Malam Shehu Ndanusa, stated this on Friday while delivering a speech at the offical Flag off of 2025 Seasonal Malaria Chemotherapy (SMC), held in Ilorin.

He stated that Malaria is a major public health concern in Nigeria and a significant cause of under 5 morbidity and mortality with a prevalence of 23 percent in under five year old children.

According to him, SMC is one of proven malaria elimination intervention which was started by this administration in 2021.

“It involves the house-to-house distribution of malaria preventive medicine to children aged 3-59 months in 11 eligible LGA of Kwara State.

“This campaign is made possible by commitment of this administration to the
health and welfare of all kwarans particularly our children and mothers.

“We continue to pay several health related counterpart fund that have cemented the collaboration of our donors and partners, hence complementing the numerous health interventions from the Ministry of Health,” he said.

AbdulRazaq stated that in 2023, the State government implemented the first ever integrated Seasonal Malaria
Chemoprevention and Insecticide Treated Net campaign to increase the access.

He noted that the impact of the malaria elimination strategies and innovations have been applauded globally and have been adopted by other states.

The governor observed that the State remains committed in the quest to ensure zeromalaria and will leave no stone unturned in achieving this.

“I want to charge our mothers to gladly receive our health volunteers; Community
Distributors (CDD) who will be coming to your houses to give you the malaria preventive drug (SPAQ) and supervise the administration of the first dose to eligible children.

“Our mothers are to equally ensure that they complete the day-2 and day-3 drug in order to keep their children free from malaria this raining season.

“In addition, our mothers and fathers should ensure that they and their children continue to sleep under the Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) every night,” he advised.

In her welcoming address, Dr Amina El-Imam, Kwara Commissioner for Health explained that the flaggoff is to create awareness for people on the need to get the preventive malaria drugs for thier children.

She warned that Malaria continue to kill children in Africa, adding that the drug is
life saving and administered free for children three months to five years of ages. (NAN)

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