Govt plans new policy on malaria control

TO ensure better results, the Federal Government has concluded plans to adopt a new policy on malaria control.
 Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the First National Catholic Health Summit, organised as part of activities to mark the church’s 120 years of health care delivery in Nigeria.

  He observed that under the new policy, attention would be shifted from control to total eradication of the disease.
  He explained that new policy, which has been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), focuses more on destroying the larva rather than controlling the spread by mosquitoes.
  Represented by the Head of Public Health Department in the ministry, Mrs. Bridget Okoeguale, the minister noted that the use of treated nets to control malaria was not yielding the desired result, hence the need for the adoption of another approach to malaria eradication.
  He said: “We have observed that the method of using treated nets to control malaria has not yielded the needed results because many of our people have yet to form the habit of using the nets. The cost of buying the nets, in addition to what is required to get people to use them, have given us the cause to think of better ways of managing malaria.”
  The minister commended the contributions of the church in the past 120 years in the area of health care delivery, stressing that effective health care delivery at the grassroots could not be successful without the support of faith-based organisations such as the church.

- The Guardian

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