Health

Africare, an international NGO working in ExxonMobil host communities of Akwa Ibom, says it has rendered malaria prevention services to 90,000 persons in the state since 2011.
Dr Patrick Adah, the Africare Director, Malaria Programme, disclosed this on Wednesday at Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom during a malaria sensitization outreach tagged “Christmas in Good Health”.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Adah explained that the services rendered in two local government areas of Eket and Ibeno included regular sensitisation campaigns on malaria, testing and provision of malaria drugs and other commodities.
The director said that Africare had introduced a device for testing malaria infection called Deki Reader in 30 health facilities in Eket and Ibeno local government areas of the state.
“The Deki Reader is more effective and reliable than the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) currently in use in Nigeria.
“The device has the advantage of eliminating human error in the reading of test results,” Adah said.
He explained that the test results captured by Deki Reader could be accessed by authorised personnel of the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in the elimination of malaria in Nigeria.
He noted that with the Deki Reader accurate record of malaria prevention programme and the current prevalence rate could be determined easily in Nigeria.
Adah said that the malaria project in the two local government areas of Akwa Ibom was sponsored by ExxonMobil under the programme “Malaria Prevention in Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN)-supplier communities (MAPS-C)”.
“We are here to create awareness that malaria is treatable and preventable, we want to encourage the people to utilise the malaria commodities.
“We are choosing this festive mood of Christmas to do this sensitisation so that we can enjoy the yuletide in good health.
“We thank ExxonMobil for providing the funding for the project, we advise the people to use Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) while sleeping in the night,” Adah said.
Addressing the sensitisation outreach, the Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr Perpetua Uhomoibhi, thanked Africare and ExxonMobil for their partnership in malaria prevention.
Uhomoibhi noted that funding from development partners for malaria control had decreased over the years and called on private sector in Nigeria to invest in malaria control.
“We encourage the private sector to step up funding for malaria prevention programme to maintain healthy workforce in the country,” Uhomoibhi said.
She also appealed to ExxonMobil to increase its support to Africare so as to cover the 31 local government areas of the state.
Uhomoibhi said that the Federal Ministry of Health had been sending malaria commodities to state governments across the country for distribution to the 774 local government areas.
The State Project Manager, National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr John Orok, said that treatment of malaria was free in all public health facilities in Akwa Ibom.
Orok said that the state had enough malaria commodities in all public health facilities and that the stocks were replenished every two months.
He urged the people to sleep under mosquito treated nets every night to prevent the attack of malaria in the local government area given the fact that Ibeno was a coastal town.
The Chairman of Ibeno Local Government Council, Mr Ifum Henry, also commended ExxonMobil and Africare for partnering to reduce the prevalence of malaria in the area.
Henry promised to support the activities of Africare in the area as far as healthcare delivery was concerned.