Delegates meet in Abuja to fine-tune strategies, exchange ideas with other countries at SMC meeting

The Federal Ministry of Health through the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) has commenced implementation of preventive strategies in response to seasonal malaria outbreak in Nigeria.

It explained that the preventive response is anticipation of rainy season during which transmission of malaria is high, particularly among children of certain age bracket.

Ministry officials involved in the case management thus participated in the 2024 annual Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) Alliance meeting held in Abuja, on Tuesday, with 12 endemic countries majorly from the African region that accounts for 94 per cent of global burden (World Malaria Report 2023), in attendance.

The Minister who was represented by Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, Director, Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, appreciated the result of the past meetings, particularly in the effort of the endemic countries to tackle malaria, and reiterated that the meeting serves as a guide to the malaria endemic countries in reviewing outcomes, share best practices, challenges, lessons learnt and proffer technical and funding guidance for SMC campaigns.

He said: “Evidently, SMC implementation has attained a major milestone since the World Health Organisation’s recommendation over a decade ago, and its deployment has been impactful, feasible and highly acceptable malaria preventive intervention. For the full story please consult Sun News Nigeria.