The Niger State Government in collaboration with National Malaria Elimination Programme, is to commence the distribution of 3.8 million treated mosquito nets to kickstart the 2022 Insecticide Treated Nets mass distribution campaign.
This was made known by the Demand Creation Officer of the NMEP, Hope Obokoh, during a media parley with journalists in Minna on Wednesday.
Obokoh stated that the nets would be distributed to the people through a door-to-door campaign adding that every household across the 275 wards in the 25 Local Government Areas of the state.
She said, “The objective of the ITN mass distribution campaign is to ensure that every two person in a household in Niger State get one mosquito net to sleep inside and be protected from mosquitos that spread malaria.”
According to Obokoh, the simultaneous household registration and distribution will commence from September 1 to 12, 2022.
She added that the state government would arrest those who sold the nets that were meant for free distribution.
“We are aware that branded nets that are meant to be distributed for free are sold but we have done some advocacy visits to curtail this.
“We have paid advocacy visits to security agents appealing to them to provide us with monitoring and surveillance to ensure our nets don’t get to the wrong hands, neither are they sold on the streets.”
She also added that 97 per cent of Nigerians were at risk of malaria adding that 1 of 3 malaria related deaths globally occurred in Nigeria.
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