Society for Family Health has been taxed to liaise with National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration Control (NAFDAC) in checking incidence of fake malaria drugs that can induce other health problems among the users.

Governor Godswill Akpabio, who made the call when Dr. Jennifer Anyanti, Head of Society for Family Health/Roll Back Malaria programme, Abuja and her team called on him at Governor’s Office, Uyo, cited instances of some persons who after taking an unnamed malaria drug were later diagnosed with cardiac and kidney problems.

Akpabio remarked, “You must sensitize the people more on how to prevent malaria growth, such as letting them know that keeping pools of water around their environment and pouring of dirty water in the gutters could lead to malaria, among others”.

He recalled, “The health sector is really important in my administration. Already, about 1.5 million nets were distributed by the state Ministry of Health to more than 20,000 households in the state by 2013. And I believe by now the nets would have been worn out, so there is need for replacement. We have made sure that we have eradicated polio in the state and for six years now, no case of polio has been recorded”.

The Governor, therefore, pledged the state government’s support to SFH through the state Ministry of Health in the distribution of insecticidal nets to Akwa-Ibom people.

The Head of Society for Family Health (SFH), Dr. Anyanti said their visit was to inform the Governor Akpabio and the people of the state of their upcoming campaign to distribute over 2.7 million mosquito nets in the state.

Anyanti appealed to the state government for support to ensure the success of the campaign, and stressed that the commitment at every level of the society is imperative as actions are put in place to prevent vector-borne diseases especially malaria.

She hinted that SFH is operating at other levels in the state supported by the Ministry of Health, state media organizations, among others and is currently implementing a statewide HIV prevention house-to-house campaign from July 7 to August 7 to target individuals in over 500,000 households in every local government in the state as part of the Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and AIDs programme funded by the British Department for International development.

The Director, Global Fund Malaria Programme, Dr. Ernest Nwokolo disclosed that SFH is in partnership with Roll Back Malaria and National Malaria Elimination Programme funded by the Global Fund to fight HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which he said is conducting nationwide distribution of free lasting insecticidal nets.