Bauchi State Commemorates
By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Bauchi State Government through the State Agency for the Control HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Malaria (BACATMA) in collaboration with Malaria Consortium and other partners have commemorated the 2024 World Malaria Day (WMD) highlighting some of the successes and challenges in ridding the Bauchi State from scourge of Malaria.
Addressing newsmen as part of activities slated for the WMD on Sunday at the premises of BACATMA, Bauchi State Commissioner of health Dr. Adamu Umar Sambo said that the annual commemoration of WMD provides an avenue to showcase successes and challenges in the fight against Malaria in the State.
Represented by the Director Malaria Control of BACATMA Abubakar Musa Usman, the Commissioner disclosed that Malaria among pregnant women in Bauchi State has increased from 4935 in 2023 to 5216 in March 2024.
On some of the successes recorded, the Commissioner said that Malaria cases in under five years have dropped from 23,536 to 21, 535 and that in the age groups above five years the numbers have also dropped from 34, 209 to 31, 720 from last year to this year.
Dr. Sambo said that the challenges being encountered are receiving committed attention of the State Government and Partners working in the health sector to reverse the trend.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of BACATMA Dr. Sani Mohammed Damban, who was represented by the Director Administration and Human Resource of BACATMA, Hassan Baba Misau, expressed his appreciation to invited guests for attending the event.
Dr. Damban particularly pointed out the enormous support of international partners, civil society organisations and the media for being part of the campaign to mitigate Malaria and other communicable diseases in Bauchi State and the Country at large.
In a goodwill message from Malaria Consortium, one of the International Partners, representative of the organisation, Indo Rabo Ibrahim appreciated the State Government for creating the enabling environment for her organisation to implement it’s intervention towards reducing cases of Malaria in the State.
Rabo said that this year they are targeting Two Million children under the Seasonal Malaria Chemo Prevention (SMC) Program.
She said that in order to achieve the set target, they have engaged and trained 2000 ad-hoc staff that will be going from house to house giving free anti malaria drugs for children aged 3-9 months.
There were questions and answers sessions during the event which were attended by CSOs, CBOs, FBOs and other professional bodies.
The theme of this year’s WMD is “Time to deliver zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate and Implement”.