WHO targets 1m children against malaria, cholera in Borno 

Children malnourished at various levels wait to be processed by aid workers for a UNICEF- funded health programme catering to children displaced by drought, at a facility in Baidoa town, the capital of Bay region of south-western Somalia where the spread of cholera has claimed tens of lives of IDP's compounding the impact of drought on March 15, 2017. The United Nations is warning of an unprecedented global crisis with famine already gripping parts of South Sudan and looming over Nigeria, Yemen and Somalia, threatening the lives of 20 million people. For Somalis, the memory of the 2011 famine which left a quarter of a million people dead is still fresh. / AFP PHOTO / TONY KARUMBA

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is targeting one million children against the spread and contraction of malaria and cholera in Borno State.

The global health agency has administered and distributed drugs to children in 11 councils and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri metropolis.

WHO and the state government Malaria Elimination Programme (MEP), was to clear children’s blood of plasmodium from contracting malaria that causes 50 per cent of deaths in the country.

This was disclosed, yesterday, in Maiduguri by WHO’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Bala Hassan, while briefing journalists on this year’s second cycle of malaria prevention at El-Miskin camp.

He said the four cycle of malaria prevention for 2018 was to reduce malaria “prevalence and mortality” in camps and communities, adding that administration of the plasmodium tablets on children, should also be complemented by always keeping the environment clean to prevent breeding of mosquitoes.

Hassan urged the people against keeping stagnant water and empty drums; and filthy surroundings in both camps and homes.

The Borno State Programme Manager, Mala Waziri, also said the peak of malaria transmission among children is in the July to September annual rainy season.

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