The World Health Organisation (WHO) will, today, begin the immunisation of about a million children in Adamawa State against malaria.
The organisation revealed yesterday that it had procured 4.4 million doses of anti-malaria vaccine to protect 977,843 Adamawa children below five years of age against malaria parasites.
The Malaria Programme Officer of WHO, Dr IniAbasi Nglass said during a media sensitisation workshop in Yola yesterday that more than 9,000 volunteers had been trained to implement the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) programme across the 21 local government areas of Adamawa State.
She said the SMC programme implementation in the state starts today.
The State Programme Manager, Adamawa State Malaria Elimination Programme, Benjamin Gubi, explained that the trained personnel would be deployed in teams for the house-to-house SMC vaccination campaign.
He said it is a four-course campaign in which every child is to be immunised within the first week of every month for the next four months.
Explaining the projections of the programme, he said: “You may observe that the 4.4 million doses of vaccine will go more than four doses to the targeted 977,843 children; this is because of certain expectations, including the likelihood of repeat doses for children who, for example, vomit a dose administered on them.”
Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) is described as an effective intervention to prevent malaria in those most vulnerable to the disease’s effects, involving administering monthly doses of anti-malarial drugs to children below five years during peak malaria transmission season.