Bauchi State launches 2023 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention for 2.2 million children

From Paul Orude Bauchi

Bauchi State Government in collaboration with Malaria Consortium has flagged off the 2023 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign for the prevention of malaria in children.

This year’s campaign targets a total of 2.2 million eligible children aged three to 59 months beginning from Saturday, July 15 to Tuesday August 18.

Speaking at a media parley in his office on Friday, the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of Malaria, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and HIV/AIDS (BACATMA), Dr. Sani Mohammed Dambam, disclosed that the SMC campaign is happening simultaneously with distribution Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) for household use to prevent Malaria.

Dambam expressed joy that Bauchi was adjudged the best performing State in SMC implementation in 2022, assuring the Malaria Consortium that this 2023 campaign would supersede that of last year.

He attributed the successes recorded to the commitment and support of Governor Bala Mohammed’s administration’s to a healthy and productive citizens that do not have to engage in out of pocket expenses for healthcare services.

Dambam said the SMC campaign for 2023 covers all the 20 Local Government Areas of the state, added that it would be repeated for four more rounds while the raining season lasted.

Speaking earlier in a presentation on the roll out of the SMC exercise, the Bauchi State Malaria Programme Coordinator, Kabiru Mohammed Algamawy disclosed that the burden of Malaria has reduced by 12.5% from
2020 TO 2022.

Algamawy who stated that previous campaigns had also reduced the Out-of-Pocket Expenditure to treat Malaria, said that 25,000 Adhoc personnel have been recruited for the 2023 SMC campaign.

He said the adhoc staff.would
all be paid monthly stipends/allowances as another way of creating employment in the state.

He said that Bauchi Government was happy with the presence of Malaria Consortium in the state and wished then to stay in the state for subsequent months.

Algamawy commended the State Government for the tremendous support the consortium was getting in carrying out its activities in the state.

He explained that the SMC intervention was an intermittent administration of monthly treatment course of antimalaria to children during high transmission of the scourge as the rainy season sets in.

He opined that the preventive medication is given at monthly intervals for four months to children aged 3 to 59 months.

The Program Manager said that the objective of the SMC campaign is to maintain adequate therapeutic antimalarial drugs concentration in the blood of the recipient throughout the raining period of malarial risk.

He added that in order to have a successful campaign, all personnel involved in the implementation of the SMC at the State, LG, and community levels have been retrained for optimal performance during implementation period.

He also thanked the management of BACATMA under the leadership of Dr. Sani Mohammed Dambam for the support and enthusiasm for this year’s SMC implementation.

Mohammed expressed confidence that with the SMC coming while the Treated Mosquito Nets are being distributed, the prevalence of malaria in mother and child will reduce drastically to a barest minimum.