In the bid to reduce child mortality especially in children under the age of five, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disbursed about one million malaria preventive drugs for children in the FCT.
The Mandate Secretary, FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, during a presentation of hospital commodities to hospitals under FCTA.
Fasawe who also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NISA Premier Medical Group, stated that statistics have it that 10 children die of malaria every second in Africa, which prompted the Administration to use preventive approach to tackle the disease.
She informed that the FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, was committed to addressing the healthcare challenges of residents with the various steps being taken to ensure quality and affordable healthcare, particularly for vulnerable groups.
“This initiative is particularly focused on making healthcare more affordable, especially for those registered under the FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS), who will receive malaria medication free of charge.
“FCT was among the first states to contribute counterpart funding to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) grant under the IMPACT Project, enabling the FCT to access the anti-malaria medication”, she said.
The Mandate Secretary disclosed that, FCTA had also paid 100,000 dollars counterpart funding, which led to the unlocking of an additional N900 million from IDB. This funding, she said, was intended to ensure that no patient pays for malaria treatment.
Fasawe said that in addition to the one million doses of malaria preventive drugs, the project was also supporting with human resources to support hospital staffing and community health advocacy efforts.
She, however, said that mothers had a huge role to play in ensuring that their children got the medication, adding that, health workers would be going round all parts of the Territory to distribute the medication to children under the age of five and so should not reject them but use as directed.
Fasawe, however, said that the medication should not be taken by adults or pregnant women.
Regarding the MoU with NISA Premier Group, she said that the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement covers another 15 years for the group to manage the hospital.
She said that the MoU was aimed at making comprehensive healthcare services more accessible to residents.
