World Malaria Day: Bauchi moves to tame increasing malaria in pregnant women

Rauf Oyewole

The Bauchi State Government has said that it is working hard to curb the increasing rate of malaria in pregnant women.

 

The State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Adamu Umar Sambo said this on Monday while marking this year's World Malaria Day at the head office of the State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Malaria (BACATMA).

The Commissioner who was represented by the Director Malaria Control of BACATMA, Hassan Baba Misau, said that Malaria among pregnant women in the State has increased from 4,935 in 2023 to 5,216 cases in March 2024.

Malaria cases in under five years have dropped from 23,536 to 21, 535 and in the age groups above five years the numbers have also dropped from 34,209 to 31,720 from last year to this year.

He said that the Agency in collaboration with the Malaria Consortium and other partners are working to tame the prevalence of malaria.

Dr. Sambo said that the annual commemoration of WMD provides an avenue to showcase successes and challenges in the fight against Malaria in the State.

He said that the challenges being encountered are receiving committed attention from the State Government and partners working in the health sector to reverse the trend.

The Executive Secretary of BACATMA Dr. Sani Mohammed Damban pointed out the enormous support of international partners, civil society organisations and the media for being part of the campaign to mitigate Malaria and other communicable diseases in Bauchi State and the Country at large.

In a goodwill message from Malaria Consortium, one of the international partners,  representative of the organisation Indo Rabo Ibrahim appreciated the State Government for creating the enabling environment for her organisation to implement its intervention towards reducing cases of Malaria in the State.

Rabo said that this year is targeting 2 million children under the seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) Programme.

She said that in order to achieve the set target, they have engaged and trained 2000 ad-hoc staff that will be going from house-to-house, giving free anti-malaria drugs for children aged 3-9 months.