No fewer than 500 members of staff of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and residents Wednesday benefitted from the council’s malaria eradication outreach.
The outreach with the theme: “Time to Deliver Zero Malaria”, was organised at the council’s secretariat, in Abuja.
AMAC Chairman, Christopher Maikalangu, said the outreach was part of the council’s commitment to bring an end to malaria scourge among its residents.
Maikalangu, represented by Dr Matthew Danjuma, Speaker, AMAC Legislative Chamber said the health of staff and residents were of importance to the council.
According to him, as a tier of government, it is important that the health of staff and residents of the council are taken seriously.
“We have been carrying out several outreaches in various communities, as there is always the need for people to know their health status,” he said.
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Dr Modupe Adeyinka, Director, Primary Healthcare, said the medical outreach would be taken to different communities in the council in order to give them a sense of belonging.
“We started this outreach during the world malaria day event where some communities were visited and full fledged medical outreach was done in Kurudu and Lugbe.
“We are giving antimalarial drugs and insecticide treated mosquito nets to pregnant women and children under five years.
“The area council has been doing it every quarter and we are moving into the next quarter of the medical outreach,” she added.
Also speaking, Dr Dan Matthew, the Malaria Coordinator of AMAC said that the outreach would be extended to Garki village, Aleita community, among others in the next few days.
“The essence of malaria intervention cannot be overemphasised because it is the major killer in the tropical region of Nigeria and it affects predominantly women and children.
“This exercise is continuous so that we can mitigate the effects of the disease, as it affects our economy and incomes of families,” he said.
Some beneficiaries, Amaka Eze and Shiloh Sunday, appreciated the area council and the chairman for the free malaria screening, drugs and insecticide treated nets given to them.