The First Lady of Kwara State, Olufolake Abdulrazaq, has pledged to use her office to ensure that children in the state no longer die of malaria.

She made the pledge on Saturday in Abuja after her investiture as Malaria Ambassador for the state by the Society for Family Health, National Malaria Elimination Programme and other partners against the eradication of malaria.

She said that she would use different channels and resources to disseminate messages on the use of malaria preventive medicines for children aged three to 59 months, and the Insecticide Treated Nets to ensure that children and families are protected.

She said, “I will also mobilise malaria advocates of the Local Government Areas who will, in turn, mobilise the people at the grassroots to the full three-day course of Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine-Amodiaquine (SPAQ) in this fourth cycle and net utilisation in Kwara becomes highest in the country.

“By the grace of God, I will work with other stakeholders to ensure that children no longer die of malaria, no pregnant woman has a miscarriage or gives birth to a low-birth-weight child due to malaria, and generally reduce the burden of malaria in Kwara State.”

As a malaria ambassador, Abdulrazaq is expected to play a pivotal role in advocating prevention, treatment, and research, using her office.

She will also support initiatives aimed at increasing public awareness, encouraging community engagements and mobilising resources for malaria elimination campaigns.

The Managing Director, SFH, Dr. Omokhudu Idogho, said that beyond the focus of ending malaria goals, there was a shift toward a more systematic and targeted integrated approach in its programming.

Idogho, who was represented by the society’s Deputy MD, Strategy, Technical and Growth, Dr. Jennifer Anyati, said that the shift was to work with donors and the government to tackle many diseases and to drive progress beyond programmes.

He added that “at SFH, we are committed to driving this process even across our HIV/Tuberculosis/Family Planning portfolio and provide the country with best practices and proof-of-concept to inform the further mainstreaming of integration.

“Our integration agenda includes a core commitment to promoting equity, reducing spending, strengthening contributions to capacity building of local workforces, primary healthcare and universal health coverage.

“In addition to establishing a collaborative approach with our diverse partners, we are aligning common objectives and priorities to identify inter-related priority areas of strength to achieve the one-health agenda for Nigeria.”

According to him, SFH, with other partners including the NMEP, the Global Fund, and Christian Relief Services inaugurated the first-ever integrated ITN distribution and mass drug administration of the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention campaign in Kwara.

He added that the integration of ITN and SMC was piloted for the first-ever time in Kwara with 2.2 million ITNs and SPAQs doses worth over 47 million dollars.

Idogho said that the implementation is intended to drive lasting impact, improved outcomes, effective utilisation and fragmentation of malaria elimination will.

“In spite of the anticipated challenges toward integrating ITN/SMC, this campaign is intended to provide a basis and evidence for the national integration agenda for many preventive tools such as immunisation.

“This also holds promise to solve lingering challenges of vertical implementation approaches and towards aligned planning and maximising resources of health responses,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that during the integrated SMC/ ITN mass campaign in the state, 2,292,209 ITNs will be distributed through a door-to-door approach, while 2,283,800 SPAQ will be administered to eligible children aged three to 59 months.

The objective of the campaign is to ensure that for every two persons in the state, there is a one-bed net to sleep inside, and every eligible child receives a full course of SPAQ.

NAN