By Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The Malaria Consortium and the Gombe State Malaria Elimination Programme is targeting about one million under five children with pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria preventable drugs known as Azithromycin.
The free Mass Drug Administration campaign funded by the Gates Foundation, and implemented by the Malaria Consortium in five States including Gombe, is expected to commence on 10th November, 2025 and will last for four days in Gombe State.
Pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria are among the major causes of child mortality in Gombe State and Dr. Obiora Anidebe, the Project Technical Specialist, working with the Malaria Consortium, said the campaign is a very strong health initiative aimed reducing child mortality.
According to him, the project is called safety and microbial resistance of Mass Administration of Azithromycin to children from one to fifty-nine (59) months in Nigeria.
Briefing newsmen preparatory to the commencement of the intervention, Dr. Obiora emphasized the importance of effective media collaboration in ensuring public awareness and mobilization for the success of the intervention, expected to cover all communities in the 114 wards and eleven Local Government Areas of the State.
He said “the Azithromycin Mass Drug Administration (MDA) is aimed at reducing child mortality, morbidity and control preventable diseases by ensuring equitable access to treatment across participating States”.
Already, the State Training of Trainers (STOT) components currently ongoing, is to ensure that the State trainers, community drug distributors (CDD) and local stakeholders are adequately prepared to implement the campaign at the grassroots level, he pointed out.
He expressed Malaria Consortium’s commitment to supporting the State-level efforts through strong partnerships, evidence based communication and strategic stakeholders engagement to achieve impactful and sustainable health outcomes. He also assured that there would be enough drugs to go round.
Explaining further, Abubakar Isah, the State project manager of the programme in Gombe, working with the Malaria Consortium, emphasized that the drug had been tested and proven to be successful in other States.
He added that the State actors have shown preparedness towards seeing the success of the campaign as traditional, community and religious leaders have already been mobilized as well as mapping out of communities done to ensure non is left out.
The campaign is going to be in a house-to-house or door-to-door bases to ensure children in every household are reached. Sick children, those allergic to the drug and malnourished children are not to be administered with the drug. The dosage is twice in a year with an interval of six months.
Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non profit organisation dedicated to comprehensive control of malaria and other communicable diseases.
Through evidence based programming, research and advocacy, the organisation works with Governments, partners and communities to improve health and transform lives.
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