From INIOBONG SUNDAY, Uyo
Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Sarmaan Project, SP, committed to drug administration to reduce child mortality in Nigeria, has expressed concern over the high death rate amongst children and infants in Akwa Ibom State.
To curb the menace of life-threatening childhood diseases, the NGO working in alliance with the state government has administered azithromycin drugs to over 36,000 children to enhance life expectancy in Ikono Local Government Area.
It also engaged caregivers to demonstrate the usefulness of the drugs in the state.
The project coordinator, Dr Teyil Wamiyel-Mshella disclosed this in Uyo at the weekend, during the closing ceremony of the ‘Safety and Anti-microbial Resistance of Mass Administration of Azythromycin to Children aged 1-11 Months.’
Wamiyel-Mshella, who coordinates the project for Sightsavers, an international agency, explained that the pilot phase conducted in the council was aimed at ensuring that children between the ages of 1-11 months receive the drugs under strict monitoring to ascertain it safety and anti-microbial resistance in children
“Sarmaan is a very good project that was introduced in Nigeria in 2020 with a field work and so far, it’s been very successful. The aim of the project was mainly to ensure that children between 1-11 months in the LGA where we piloted it, will receive acithromycin and along side, we will be monitoring the safety of the medicine and also the anti-microbial resistance for azythromycin
“Azythromycin is a very good medicine, it’s an antibiotics that is used for the treatment of many ailments that affect children and also contribute to infants to children deaths between 0 to 05 years. So this drug was used mainly to show the effects of it on child survival, that is why we were monitoring the safety of the medicine and it anti-microbial resistance.
“We have been able to treat over 36,000 children in Ikono and we were able to engage with caregivers for them to know the usefulness of the medicine ” Wamiyel-Mshella said
She expressed satisfaction with the level of acceptability of the project and called on the state government to key into it in order
to bridge the infant mortality gap in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Ekem John, who was represented by the Director of Public Health, Dr Etop Antia, commended all the partners for making the project a success.
In the same vein, executive secretary of Akwa Ibom State Primary Health Care Development Agency, AIHDA, Dr Eno Attah appreciated the Federal Ministry of Health for considering Akwa Ibom as one of the states for the pilot project
Attah, who was represented by the Director of Health Education and Promotion, Mrs Margaret Etim, lauded the initiative and the focus of the project on children, emphasising that they are very vulnerable when it comes to diseases, as they are unable to say how exactly they feel.
