Malaria prevention: Kano State Govt. targets 12m children

In anticipation of the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (  medical term used to refer to the administration of medication for the purpose of preventing disease or infection.) exercise in 44 local government areas of kano state, for the month of July to October, the kano state Government has disclosed that it is targetting 12 million children below the age of five years

This was made known by the Commissioner for Health, Dr Aminu Tsanyawa, at a news conference in Kano on
Monday ahead of the exercise.

He said that the exercise would be conducted on the house-to-house basis to ensure coverage.

Tsanyawa stressed that the four-day exercise would be conducted alongside the annual Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW).

The aim, he said, was to prevent complicated and severe malaria incidences among the age group.

He also said that the MNCHW, conducted twice every year “is a high impact low-cost intervention offered to pregnant women
and children below the age of five to increase coverage level of preventive and curative health indicators.”

He highlighted that the previous exercise conducted in January 2022 recorded huge success, with Vitamin A covering more than 88 per cent.

Tsanyawa expressed optimism that the current round of the exercise would also achieve greater impact, considering the government’s increased support.

He said Vitamin A supplements would be given to more than 3.1 million children, while over 2.8 million children would be dewormed.

There would also be childhood immunisation of about 68,135 children, while antenatal services would also be provided, the commissioner said.

Furthermore, the exercise would provide nutritional status screening for over three million children and birth registration would also be conducted.

Newsmen reports that the twin exercises would begin on July 5, and would last for four days.