Ernest Chinwo
23 September 2008
Calabar — The battle against the malaria scourge in Cross River State has received a boost as the Canadian International Red Cross is investing about $6 million (N708 million) in the scaling up of insecticides treated nets for impact in Cross River State .
The investment is in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and NetMark plan, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and covers the nets and procurement, freighting and other logistics.
The Special Adviser to the Cross River State Governor on Roll Back Malaria, Dr. Iyam Ugot, said in Calabar, Monday that with the amount, the Canadian International Red Cross, USAID and NetMark plan to distribute about 724,000 Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINS) during the upcoming Integrated Measles Campaign in Cross River state.
According to Ugot, "out of the 724,000 , the Canadian International Red Cross is bringing in 560,000 while USAID and NetMark are bringing in the difference (156,000) for scaling up of insecticide treated nets for impact in the society".
He said the programme is planned to hold between December 10 and 14, 2008 in the entire 18 Local Government Councils of the state with 500 temporarily and fixed posts put in place for the distribution of the nets and other items.
He said the Roll Back Malaria programme would engage 4,000 personnel divided into 8-man teams in each of the 500 posts to be established for the distribution of the materials in order to reach as many people as possible.
He explained that the programme would involve the distribution of measles vitamins, vitamin A, oral polio vaccine and the treated nets.
"This particular programme is massive and it has never been done elsewhere before. The State and Local Government Council components include technical experts, personnel, and logistics and the USAID/NetMark also partner on logistics," he said.
THISDAY gathered that the Canadian Red Cross, USAID/NetMark met recently with the State Ministry of Health and the Roll Back Malaria Project team in the State to finalise arrangements for the programme implementation.
NetMArk which is coming to the state for the first time, is an 8-year $65.5 million public health programme funded by the USAID and implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED).
The Canadian International Red Cross is working with its Nigerian and the State counterpart of Red Cross, USAID/NetMark and the Roll Back Malaria Programme/Ministry of Health for implementation of the current project
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