By; Eucharia Nzeabia – Asaba.
In a bid to eliminate malaria in Delta State, the state govt in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme ( NMEP ), and Management Sciences For Health (MSH) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with funding support from the Global Fund Malaria Project has commenced the process of the 2022 Insecticides Treated Nets (ITNs) mass campaign in the state.
The Programme which took place at Golden land Hotel in Asaba was attended by practitioners from public and private media organisations, featuring questions and answer sessions.
Speaking during an orientation programme organized for media practitioners in Asaba, the Permanent Secretary, Delta State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Jude Winful – Orieke, said the ITN mass campaign was to ensure that for every two persons in Delta, there was one-bed net to sleep inside.
Dr. Winful – Orieke said over 3.7 million ITNs would be distributed to households across the 25 local government areas of Delta state through a door–to–door approach, pointing out that registration and simultaneous distribution of the nets would commence on June 2, through 13, 2022.
Also speaking, the Director, Social Mobilization, DSPHCDA, Dr. Ngozi Orofuke Ugbome, advised Deltans and other residents of the state to ensure that someone was at home during the period of distribution to collect the nets.
In their presentations, Jessie Okoro and Farooq Lawal of Management Sciences for Health (MSH) said it was expected that every community member would get to know about the campaign and the benefits of consistently and correctly sleeping inside the net, adding that every household should receive at least one ITN during the campaign
They stated that media support was crucial because, though malaria was a leading public health problem, it had remained underreported in the media, adding that it had become imperative that malaria should be kept in the front burner of health news, while efforts should be made to provide adequate publicity before, during and after the ITN mass campaign.