Andy Esiet,, Calabar
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Orientation, Mr. Emmanuel Akpong (6th from right), the State Health Promotion Officer, Mrs. Ogama Ekpor (5th from right) flanked by members of both teams (Information Ministry and State Health Promotion team).
As part of efforts to curb the menace of malaria prevalence, the Cross River state government is to commence the distribution of insecticide treated nets (ITN) to the public from June 9 across the state.
The State Health Promotion team, led by the State Health Promotion Officer (SHPO), Ogama Ekpor, who announced this during a courtesy call on the management of the Ministry of Information and Orientation at weekend, said already the state has released over 2.79 million insecticide treated nets (ITN) across the 18 Local Government health offices in the State.
In addition , she stated that the state has trained over 13, 000 personnel to replicate same training at the Local Government, ward and community levels in the State for the distribution exercise.
The Health Promotion team leader said the distribution of the insecticide treated nets, billed to commence from June 9, is aimed at nibbing malaria upsurge in the bud, a situation which, she said, contributes highly to infant mortality and morbidity in the state, country and the sub-Saharan Africa.
She said the 2023 distribution exercise, unlike that of 2019 which was blighted by discrepancies, has been improved upon and digitised to ensure that nets get to the target population.
Ekpor added that her team was also collaborating with the Ministry of Environment in order to efficiently tackle the cross cutting environmental dimensions of malaria causes.
To win the war against malaria in the state, she disclosed that the State Health Promotion team has sought collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Orientation on the proper use of insecticide treated nets and the upcoming distribution exercise in the State.
Ekpor who described the Information Ministry as a critical stakeholder in advocacy building, orientation, enlightenment and effective information dissemination to the public. pointed out that partnership with the Information Ministry will give further impetus to the health sector’s resolute fight against malaria and its attendant effect on residents of the State.
In his response, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Akpong, assured the team of his Ministry’s readiness to partner with relevant agencies in the execution of policies, programmes and projects that are in the best interest of the public.
Mr. Akpong, who stressed on health programmes as sacrosanct to the media, pledged to employ all available mass media, as well as online platforms to propagate information on the correct use of insecticide treated nets and other malaria prevention messages.
On her part, the State Coordinator, Breakthrough Action Nigeria, a social and behaviour change organization, Pascaline Edim, stated that the Health Promotion team is resolute in its quest to correcting the use of insecticide treated nets and to reduce malaria burden in the Cross River.
She decried the abuse of ITN for gardening purposes and other unwholesome practices, re-echoing the need for re-orientation of the public, hence the alliance with the Information and Orientation Ministry.
She informed that mapping of households and issuance of net tickets are ongoing in the State, insisting that “it is compulsory that households get registered in order to qualify for receiving insecticide treated nets, because everything is now digitised.”
