Total Launches Malaria Elimination Programme

Total in Nigeria via Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI), and Total Nigeria Plc, on behalf of its joint venture partners have launched the 2018 Malaria Elimination Programme, tagged: “Defeat Malaria” as a means to deploy interventions to malaria prone areas in effort to proffer solutions to some world problems such as malaria.

The programme launch, which held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, was part of activities to mark this year’s World Malaria Day (WMD) themed: “End Malaria for Good.”
The event saw the distribution of about 1,000 Long Lasting Insecticidal Net (LLIN) in the city, where the Total team went for a sensitisation and net hanging walk.

According to Vincent Nnadi, the Executive General Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Total, the selection of Ibadan was due to the high prevalence of malaria in the area.

“Our facilitators, who check the prevalence of malaria, spotted this area for very high rates and that’s why we chose Ibadan.”

Apart from the distribution of LLIN, which served as an intervention, the Group also had close to 500 people tested for malaria at the Oniyerin Primary Healthcare Centre, Ibadan, and patients who tested positive to it were given appropriate anti-malaria drug combination.

Speaking further in a keynote address, Nnadi noted that Total and its partners embarked on institutional capacity development programmes to help in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria among the vulnerable groups (pregnant women and children), thus its partnership with three state government (Adamawa, Bornu, and Yobe) in the construction, furnishing and equipping of four Maternal and Child referral Centres (MCRCs).
Commending Total’s efforts, Azeez Popoola , the Oyo State Health Commissioner, who was represented by Taiwo Ladipo, from the State Ministry of Health, said Total’s elimination programme was not only a call to more action, but in line with the government’s efforts to reduce the level of malaria parasite still in circulation.

The LLIN, he explained, is a proven intervention because it serves two purposes, a barrier between man and mosquito and kills mosquitoes that come into contact, hence, the reduction of vector density within the environment.
Ladipo remarked that over the years, the deployment of several intervention programmes, which the LLIN was part of has aided in the reduction of malaria case incidence by 43 per cent in the state. The team also took time out to hang some insecticidal nets in some homes in the metropolis during the sensitisation walk. 

May 07, 2018