Kaduna State Government says it recorded 37.2 per cent reduction in malaria cases in 2021.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Mohammed-Baloni, disclosed this at a news conference to mark the 2022 World Malaria Day in Kaduna on Monday.

Mohammed-Baloni said the figure represented a significant improvement compared with the 60.3 per cent reduction in malaria cases recorded in 2020.

She stated that the malaria programme has the highest budgetary approval in the state’s annual operational plan.

“We have also achieved 68 per cent refill rate order for all anti-malaria commodities,” she added.

The commissioner noted that the Kaduna State Government had spent N298 million on procuring anti-malaria commodities, through Health Supplies Management Agency.

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“We hope to strengthen inter-sector and inter-agency collaboration to achieve integration in the fight against malaria in the state,” she said.

Mohammed-Baloni said the state government, in its efforts at preventing the spread of malaria in the state, had distributed 3,333 artesunate injections and 746 health facilities in 29 secondary and tertiary hospitals.

“We received and stored about 5,509,778 pieces of insecticide-treated nets to be distributed to households for this year’s campaign, holding in July,” the commissioner said.

Mohammed-Baloni said that the malaria day was aimed at raising global awareness against malaria as well as encouraging actions that would reduce sufferings and deaths from the disease.

She, therefore, enjoined stakeholders to engage in massive awareness on the fight against the scourge in the state.

The Star