As part of efforts to ensure a healthy society, Yobe State Government through the Primary Health Care Management Board has on Friday flag-off ceremony for the 2020 Seasonal Malaria Chemo-prevention (SMC) campaign at the palace of Emir of Damaturu.
In his opening address, the Executive Secretary, Yobe State Primary Health Care Management Board, Dr. Babagana Kundi Machina, represented by an official of the Board, Dr. Umar Chiromari, informed that in 2019 Yobe State Government in collaboration with development partners conducted a mass campaign for the distribution of Two Million Three Hundred Thousand Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets across the State as part of the efforts at protecting the people from malaria in addition to the other Malaria prevention and control interventions such as environmental sanitation and supply and distribution of antimalarial and other essential drugs.
Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) is the cyclical administration of preventive antimalarial drugs during the peak period of malaria transmission with the aim of preventing malaria illness and death in children under the age of five years.
According to him “this intervention has been shown to be effective in reducing up to 75% of malaria illness and death in under-five children. Last year, SMC was implemented in & LGA in Yobe State. This year, for the first time, SMC will be implemented in all LGAS in Yobe State.
“Malaria has been an endemic disease in tropical Africa with an estimated 90% of the total Malaria incidence and death occurring in the region: particularly among Pregnant Women and Children, We all know that malaria is a major cause of absenteeism from school and workplaces and a very major contributor to disabilities and deaths in the society. Therefore the socio-economic importance of malaria cannot be over-emphasized”.