As part of efforts to check malaria parasites and ensure that people live healthy lives in the country, the Nigerian government has distributed 193.5 million insecticide-treated nets since the commencement of free distribution of mosquito nets in 2009.
BusinessDay reports that the three tiers of Nigerian government have, in partnership with the Society for Family Health (SFH) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), been distributing insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to several millions of Nigerians, especially pregnant and nursing mothers as well as infants to drastically reduce the prevalence of malaria parasites being transmitted to humans by female anopheles mosquitos.
Speaking at a media parley organised by the Society for Family Health and Ogun State Ministry of Health in Abeokuta at the weekend tagged, ” The Agenda for Media Orientation on Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs), John Ocholi, deputy project director at the Society for Family Health, noted that the partners like the Society for Family Health and Catholic Relief Services, among others partnered with the Nigerian government to fight malaria.
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Ocholi explained that Nigeria having observed over time, increasing cases of malaria with 31 million estimated cases of malaria and 110 million clinically diagnosed cases per year of which 30 percent of child and 11 percent of maternal deaths that were recorded annually, had decided to roll out insecticide-treated nets in order to fight malaria parasites effectively by ensuring that every household receives at least one ITN.
Responding on behalf of Ogun State Ministry of Health, Festus Soyinka, director of public health, declared that the state government was doing everything to curb the spread of malaria parasites through prompt response to environmental issues, diagnosis and treatment of people with malaria, especially at primary healthcare facilities across the state.
