FCTA TARGETS ONE MILLION CHILDREN FOR 2025 SMC
By: Doris Jonah
One million eligible children between three months to five years old have been targeted for the 2025 round of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in the Federal Capital Territory, this is in a bid to tackle about 30% malaria deaths in Nigeria of mostly children under the age of 5 years.
This was disclosed at the official flag-off ceremony of the 2025 round of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention campaign held at Kado-Kuchi a suburb community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
In her keynote address at the ceremony, the Mandate Secretary FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat (HSES) Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe said that “despite being a preventable and curable disease, malaria remains one of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide with Nigeria accounting for 27% global malaria cases with children mostly affected”.
The Mandate Secretary who was represented by the Ag. Director General, FCT Hospitals Management Board Dr. Olugbenga Bello noted that, the target to reach about one million children under 3 months to 5 years across the six Area Councils will help to reduce FCT’s burden of the disease because administering SMC which involves “antimalarial medicines like; Sulfadoxine, Pyrimethamine and Amodiaquine (SPAQ) therapy has proven to be effective in the treatment of malaria”.
Also, Fasawe said that SMC has proven to be very effective since its introduction in 2022 in FCT with “41% reduction in incidences compared to other years before it was introduced” hence; she urged community leaders across the territory to sensitize residents to cooperate with trained Community Drug Distributors who will be going from door-to-door to administer drugs free of charge to eligible children.
Again, the Mandate Secretary HSES mentioned that the FCT Public Health Department and State Malaria Elimination Programme in collaboration with other relevant partners will commence the first circle of 2025 SMC round from 13th of June and conclude in October 2025 therefore, calling for support from all stakeholders to make the exercise seamless to achieve the target.
Likewise, the Permanent Secretary HSES Dr. Baba Gana Adam in his remarks reteirated the importance of SMC in prevention and treatment of malaria and enjoined residents to support the campaign which involves “monthly administration of a 3-day SPAQ to healthy children for 5 months” he said.
The Permanent Secretary who was represented at the ceremony by the Director of Special Duties, Office of the Permanent Secretary HSES Mrs. Ijeoma Jimi Bada urged parents and caregivers to ensure that doses are administered completely for 5 months to provide protection against the disease in peak transmission season (rainy season) in order to reduce hospital visits and mortality.
In her goodwill message, the Senior Country Technical Coordinator Malaria Consortium Dr. Olusola Oresanya said that SMC drugs are very safe for children and was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012 due to its impact in malaria prevention.
She equally pledged the continued support of Malaria Consortium to the Nigerian Government and FCT in implementing high impact SMC activities and other malaria control efforts.
Giving an overview of the SMC campaign since its inception in FCT in 2022, the State Project Manager, Philanthropic Fund SMC Malaria Consortium Dr. Olutomi Sodipo stated that SMC has been successfully implemented in “274 health facilities in 62 wards across the six Area Councils and have recorded remarkable successes like reaching 97.8% of children in 2024 and hopeful that the coverage will be improved upon to meet 2025 target of reaching about one million (983,497) eligible children”.
The Hakimi of Kado-Kuchi Alh. Suleiman Dogo who also spoke at the ceremony called on the residents to comply and cooperate with trained Community Drugs Distributors who will go from house to house to administer drugs because it is beneficial to the community’s wellbeing while appreciating FCTA for its effort in improving health and general wellbeing of the citizenry in the territory like making malaria treatment in FCT health facilities free of charge amongst other interventions.
