Timothy Olanrewaju Maiduguri
Dozens of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri,Borno State capital said they experienced drop in malaria cases in their camps following the use of preventive drugs given to them by the state government and World Health Organisation (WHO).
The IDPs who mostly live in make-shift shelter and unprotected from mosquitoes’ bite, said the frequency of their visit to the hospitals and health centres have substantially reduced after taken the malaria Chemopreventive drugs given by WHO during the third round seasonal anti-malaria campaigns in Maiduguri.
“We thank Allah (God), the malaria cases have reduced here especially among the children. We thank government and WHO,” Bulama Musa, a community leader at the AK Amin IDPs’ camp Old Maiduguri told newsmen on Friday.
Bulama urged WHO to sustain the malaria chemo-prevention cqmpaigns. He said the efforts would help displaced persons as they do not have the fund to purchase drugs for treatment of malaria especially as the rainy season reaches its peak.
Two IDPs at a camp in Old Maiduguri, Ashe Bulafati and Falmata Ibrahim, said they have not taken any of their children to the hospital for malaria treatment in the last one months.
WHO said the seasonal malaria Chemo-prevention, targets 2.1 million children between ages three and 59 months in 25 out of 27 local governments in the state. Abadam Local Government in northern part of Borno and Matter in the north part of the state are currently inaccessible due to insecurity.
A recent report by WHO classifies malaria as a life-threatening disease with about 405,000 deaths globally out of 228 million cases in 2018 alone. It said Africa region carries about 93 per cent of the total malaria cases for the year and 94 per cent of the deaths. Children under five are regarded as most vulnerable.
