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The Government of Kaduna State will be giving malaria drugs to residents of the state for free. Governor Nasiru El-Rufai announced the measure against malaria while on a visit to the Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital in Tudun-Wada, Kaduna, on Tuesday. He said that the scourge of the disease in the state was great and that the government had decided to treat it as an emergency.

Paul Dogo, the State Commissioner of Health and Human Services, explained that hospitals in Kaduna report as many as 1,000 cases daily; the Yusuf Danstoho Hospital which the governor visited, had 2,500 patients between Friday and Sunday. Of the number recorded for the Yusuf Danstoho Hospital, about 1,500 of them were children suffering from malaria. Mr. Dogo said that drugs had already been made available to public hospitals for the free treatment of women and children, but that the scope of the free treatment would be expanded to include all adults. He disclosed that more drugs were going to be procured for this purpose, as the governor had given a directive to this effect.

There was a plea from the commissioner for the people of the state to put up their mosquito net defenses, in order to guard against being infected by malaria.

“I am appealing to our people to please use the free treated mosquito nets we are distributing to reduce exposure to malaria”, he said. “We should also clean our environments and clear all gutters where mosquitoes breed”.

There have been reports of a spike in cases of malaria reported in Kaduna’s hospitals recently. The state government has requested for members of the public to assist in tackling the menace of the disease by donating blood to malaria patients who are also anaemic. It could also be intensifying its distribution of free treated mosquito nets in order to halt the outbreak.

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This article was first published on 12th October 2016

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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