By Iliya Kure
United States Government has under its President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), donated five million Insecticides Treated Nets to be distributed in all the 33 Local Government Areas of Oyo State, southwest Nigeria.
The gesture aims at providing a minimum of one net for every two people in each household in the state, in an effort to end malaria in Nigeria, a disease which kills about 96,000 people each year.
“Malaria is a leading cause of illness and death in Nigeria, particularly now at the peak of the rainy season when mosquito populations increase dramatically,” Ms. Celeste Carr, USAID’s Acting PMI Resident Advisor, said at the handover ceremony. “Conquering malaria will not happen overnight and it will only happen if we all work together.”
In addition, the PMI has also provided about $18 million (₦7.4 billion) funding for logistics, including transportation and community mobilization carried out in partnership with the Oyo State government, used in the planning, coordination, and distribution effort.
“Malaria infection still poses a great threat to the social and economic wellbeing of the population of Oyo State,” Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said at the distribution ceremony. “We must therefore do everything possible to safeguard our people, particularly the vulnerable group of women and children with the help of stakeholders [including] the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative.”
The PMI program in Nigeria is jointly implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in coordination with the Government of Nigeria.
Since 2011, PMI has procured more than 61 million insecticide-treated nets as part of a $712 million overall contribution to malaria control in Nigeria. PMI also supports advocacy and mobilization to encourage members of the community to sleep under the bed nets every night, and trains health workers to test for malaria before treatment.
