NEWS States urged to embrace SMC for malaria elimination

State governments in the Sahel region and non-governmental organizations have been advised to invest in Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) to reduce the burden of malaria in those areas.

National Coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Programme of the federal ministry of health, Dr Nnenna Ezeigwe made the call yesterday in Abuja during the end of project dissemination of the SMC project in Katsina State implemented by Malaria Consortium and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Represented by the director, project management of the organization, Bala Audu, she said it will help reduce the unacceptable morbidity and mortality associated with malaria in the country.

She said SMC has been adopted to combat malaria in the Sahelian states of the country, and involves the administration of full doses of sulfadoxinepyrimethamine plus amodiaquine to children between 3 to 59 months of age during the peak period of malaria transmission in the rainy season.

Country Director, Malaria Consortium, Dr. Maxwell Kolawole said 11 Sahelian states are qualified for the intervention for SMC. They include Kano, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Zamafara, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa and Sokoto among others.

Head of case management Branch of the National Malaria elimination programme, Dr Godwin Ntadom said most deaths from malaria in the country are from the North east and North West zones and SMC coverage is still very low in the states that should have it.

He said out of 227 local government areas eligible in the country for SMC, only about eight have benefitted from 2013 to 2014 and there are more plans to scale it in more states in 2016.