Abra province is malaria-free

By Maria Teresa B. Benas

BANGUED, Abra – This province is “malaria-free For two consecutive years now, Abra had not recorded a single case of malaria since the Integrated Provincial Health Office had intensified its campaign against malaria.

For this, the Department of Health – Center for Health Development may declare Abra a malaria-free province.

For several years now, the IPHO had been closely working in partnership with the Global Fund through the Shell Philippines Foundation, Inc. (SPFI), for the logistics and funding of its activities towards the elimination of malaria in the province.

According to Lilibeth Martin, the program coordinator in the province, they are now establishing the data and documents as evidence that there are no more malaria cases in Abra for the last two years which is the requirement for the declaration of Abra as Malaria-free province.

In support of this move, Martin said, they have been continuously increasing the conduct of blood-smear examination through the microscopy to all fever cases and have intensified their activities on disease surveillance not only in the government-run hospitals and clinics and rural health centers (RHUs) but also forged partnership with the private hospitals to facilitate their disease surveillance activities.

Likewise, systems are also being established by providing the needed equipment to the municipalities in order to enable their local medical technologists to sustain the malaria control program in all the RHUs in the province.

Martin also reported that the IPHO also continued to distribute long-lasting insecticide-treated nets provided by Shell to households especially in areas that used to have malaria cases the past years.

The advocacy on the elimination of malaria in the province has been intensified with the help of the local media, both in the print and broadcast and even through the internet. -- PIA