Preventing Childhood Malaria Deaths in Mashegu

As we approach the end of the rainy season, we can only be grateful to all our donors for your generosity these past months in supporting our malaria team with the required medicines, diagnostic tools and medical supplies that enabled us effectively serve the communities that form part of our catchment areas for were malaria control efforts during the peak rainy season, when malaria transmission and deaths are usually highest. Through your generous donations and support, we reached 2400 families and households in eight rural villages with targeted malaria interventions including free distribution of insecticide treated nets, malaria prevention education and chemoprophylaxis. Our service delivery efforts were focused mainly on pregnant women and under-five children who are among the most vulnerable groups to malaria attacks and deaths in this region. We also boosted malaria prevention health behaviours among vulnerable families residing in remote rural villages that we have prioritized in our work. Nigeria’s malaria statistics shows that more than 50percent of pregnant women will have at least one episode of malaria during pregnancy which in some cases progresses to severe anemia-in-pregnancy (low blood levels in the body, resulting in increased risk of maternal and child deaths.

During our last outreach in rural Kontagora, our team treated 154 children for malaria attack using artesunate combination therapy (ACT), and also provided 42 pregnant women with Intermittent Prophylactic Treatment (IPT), as recommended by World Health Organization. The malaria team also educated caregivers about the importance of environmental sanitation (clearing bushes around their houses and not leaving any standing objects that could collect stagnant water), early clinical signs and symptoms, the role of mosquitoes, the need for early diagnosis and treatment and using insecticide treated nets, as well as the importance of seeking early treatment at the earliest suspicion of malaria (fever and or generalized body weakness), from the two trained community-oriented resource health volunteers resident in their communities.

On behalf of the children and communities we serve, Physicians for Social Justice is immensely grateful to all our donors for donating generously to our malaria project through GlobalGiving platform. We thank you very much for your generosity. We thank you in a special way for donating over and over again to this project. Indeed, this Preventing Childhood Malaria Deaths Project has come a long way. In the coming months, we shall be telling you the extent of the impact you have made in the lives of children and people in the communities we serve over these past years. We are indeed very grateful. The children, women and the entire villagers are very grateful as well. Because of you, we have beautiful testimonies from the likes of Salamatu, a 22 year old - "Thank you for visiting our village with your health workers and free medicines for our children. Now that I have been given a mosquito net ( ITN), I will have less to worry about malaria for my 1-year old son again. Thank you for treating diagnosing and treating her for malaria free of charge.  We thank all who paid for the nets on our behalf".