The Ogun state government is focussing on arresting the upward trend in the mortality rate of under five year-old children and pregnant women by promoting the utilisation of insecticide treated nets in households.
The Deputy Governor, Engineer Noimot Salako-Oyedele made this known this Monday during her investiture as the Net Ambassador for the period of 2024 through 2027 by the Society for Family Health(SFH).
According to the Deputy Governor, malaria negatively impacts the health, lives and livelihood of the population, therefore the need to drastically reduce the incidence among the people, adding that increasing advocacy on the utilisation of insecticide treated nets(ITN) will go a long way in achieving the objective.
Engineer Salako-Oyedele who lauded the SFH and other partners for choosing Ogun as a major beneficiary of the ITN distribution, noted that the state fully supports the distribution campaign and its lofty goals, just as she assured the partners of the adequate participation of the people in the exercise.
The Deputy Governor urged the agencies to ensure that the targeted communities already selected to benefit from the exercise indeed get the nets for maximum protection against the malaria scourge, assuring the continued partnership of the current administration with the health agencies towards improving the health of the people, especially children,women and the youth.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker who though expressed delight that Ogun is again benefitting from the net campaign led by SFH, however pointed out that despite the distribution of 3.7 millon nets across the state three years ago, utilisation rate is still low.
Dr. Coker explained that the net distribution campaign is expected to make people, especially those at the grassroots embrace the use of the nets for great benefits.
In a remark, the SFH Campaign Team Manager, Pharmacist Dangana Christopher gave kudos to the state nets campaign team for the effective coordination of the exercise , adding that Ogun has been the best among the states where campaigns have taken place so far, calling for adequate local government stakeholders involvement and high level monitoring of the net distribution to the selected targeted communities between the 19th and 25th of this month.#
