Admin|21 April 2016|3:58am
Barely 9 hours after playing host to the wife of the President, H.E. Mrs. Aisha Buhari and the wife of the Governor of Cross River State, H.E. Dr. Mrs. Linda Ayade in Ikom, the energetic Director General (DG) of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency (CRSPHCDA) chaired the UNITAID-Supported Project Dissemination and Stakeholders Engagement Meeting on Rapid Diagnostic Testing, dialoguing with stakeholders especially in the private sector on importance of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Testing(RDT).
This is a build up to the World Malaria Day coming up on Monday 25th April 2016. Present at this meeting was the WHO, National Professional officer (Malaria) Dr. Oluseye Babatunde, CRS Head of Society for Family Health, Madam Ngozi, Head of Malaria Consortium, patners from John Snow International and several other persons from the private sector.
The DG stated that all stakeholders in the state must be up and doing to be able to overcome the Malaria scourge. She commended the team for ensuring Zero Stock-out of all Malaria commodities in all Health facilities in the state. She noted that even in the most remote PHC center in the state which she visited, she always met Malaria commodities (anti-Malaria and Rapid Diagnostic Test kits).
She commended their seamless flow of logistics but pleaded that the state structures, namely, Ministry of Health and the CRSPHCDA be deeply involved in the logistics management at the field as part of sustainability strategies. The DG also recounted all the successes recorded in the state Malaria elimination program, stating that the Wife of the Governors Dr. Mrs. Linda Ayade's health project, Hunt Malaria Intiative have taken the fight against Malaria to a greater level in the state.
Furthermore, the DG noted the disturbing trend of fever case management in CRS. In her words, "Anyone who come down with fever in CRS wrongly believes that he has Malaria. There are over 20 causes of fever as such, Nigerians and Cross Riverians must adopt the gold standards which involves testing for Malaria before you treat for it. We must discourage self medication and unnecessary use of antimalarials or we stand a risk of developing resistance to this antimalarials". She also raised some challenges with the RDTs where we have "false positives" and "false negatives" when the clinical signs are overwhelming and empirical treatment confirms diagnosis stating that alternative forms of testing should be made available where possible, leaving a very little window for clinical diagnosis.
Finally she thanked the partners who have been supporting the state government to end Malaria for good and assured them that our dynamic Governor Sen. BEN AYADE who takes the issue of health care very seriously will continue to support the system to eliminate Malaria in CRS.
Responding, the WHO National Professional Officer for Malaria, Dr Oluseye Babatunde thanked the DG for making out time to chair the meeting noting that it shows high Government commitment to the course of ending Malaria for good in CRS. He acknowledged all the issues raised by the DG and said that it is his primary assignment to work with the state to solve all the issues and reverse the trend of people taking antimalaria with out RDT. He assured the state government of continuous support from partners, noting that when partners see the kind of commitment shown in CRS they are motivated to do more.
Charles Ekanem
Media & Publicity Aide to the DG, CRSPHCDA
