By Smart Chuks
When the rains arrive in Adamawa State, the landscape changes dramatically. Dry fields give way to green farmlands, dusty roads turn muddy, and small pools of water begin to appear in neighbourhoods and farmlands. For many families, however, this transformation comes with a familiar and painful fear: malaria. Every rainy season, thousands of children across the state battle fever, weakness and hospital admissions linked to mosquito bites, a cycle that has persisted for decades.
It is within this context that the Adamawa State Government launched the 2025 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention campaign, an ambitious intervention designed to protect an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five across all 21 local government areas. The programme, which officially commenced on July 19 at Luggere Ward in Jimeta, Yola North Local Government Area, aims to break the seasonal grip of malaria on families and healthcare facilities.
The campaign is not merely a symbolic flag-off. It is a coordinated public health operation that will run for four months, during the peak malaria transmission period, delivering preventive medication directly to children in their homes.
The Persistent Burden of Malaria in Adamawa
Malaria remains one of Nigeria’s most stubborn public health challenges. Despite years of awareness campaigns and treatment efforts, the disease continues to account for a large proportion of outpatient visits and paediatric hospital admissions, particularly in the northern states.
In Adamawa, the problem is compounded by geography and living conditions. Seasonal flooding in riverine communities, inadequate drainage systems in urban centres and limited access to early diagnostic facilities in rural settlements create ideal conditions for mosquitoes to thrive. Many families live several kilometres away from the nearest primary healthcare centre, meaning that symptoms are often treated at home until complications set in.
Healthcare workers across the state recount the same pattern every year: once the rains begin, clinic waiting rooms fill with children battling fever, chills and anaemia. Some recover after treatment. Others are not so fortunate.
What Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Is Designed to Achieve
Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention, commonly known as SMC, is a preventive strategy recommended by the World Health Organization for regions with highly seasonal malaria transmission. Instead of waiting for children to fall sick before treatment begins, SMC keeps the malaria parasite from gaining a foothold in the body.
The approach involves administering a monthly dose of two antimalarial medicines, Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine and Amodiaquine, to children aged between three and 59 months during the rainy season. The medication is taken over three consecutive days each month, and the cycle is repeated for four months.
The science behind the intervention is straightforward. By maintaining therapeutic levels of the drugs in a child’s bloodstream throughout the high-risk period, the parasite is unable to multiply even if a mosquito bite occurs. The result is a significant reduction in malaria episodes and severe complications.
A Statewide Operation, From Urban Centres to Remote Villages
The 2025 campaign is being implemented through a door-to-door strategy, ensuring that no child is excluded due to distance or poverty. Trained health workers and community volunteers are visiting households across all local government areas, including hard-to-reach communities in Madagali, Michika, Maiha and Hong.
At the launch ceremony in Jimeta, the Deputy Governor, Professor Kaletapwa Farauta, speaking through a senior official, said the government’s commitment to the programme is rooted in the belief that no child should die from a preventable disease.
She described the intervention as an investment in the state’s future, urging parents to cooperate fully with the visiting teams and to complete the four-month dosage cycle.
Voices From the Frontline
In rural Gombi, community volunteer Aisha Mohammed begins her day before sunrise. She walks long distances under the scorching sun with a backpack filled with medical supplies, often crossing muddy footpaths to reach households tucked away behind farmlands.
She recalled meeting a mother who lost a child to malaria two years ago and now refuses to miss a single dose for her remaining children. According to Aisha, these encounters remind volunteers why the work matters.
In Yola South, primary healthcare nurse Daniel Babangida explained that hospitals recorded noticeable drops in paediatric malaria admissions after previous SMC rounds. He described the wards as calmer, with fewer emergency cases during the rainy months.
Partnerships Driving the Campaign
The Adamawa SMC campaign is supported by a coalition of development partners, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Malaria Consortium and Nigeria’s National Malaria Elimination Programme.
These partners provide technical expertise, training, logistics support and monitoring tools to ensure the programme meets international standards. Their involvement also ensures that drug quality, safety protocols and data collection processes are consistent across all participating communities.
Evidence That the Strategy Works
SMC is not an experimental approach. It has been implemented in several African countries with remarkable results. In Nigeria, states that have consistently rolled out the programme report sharp declines in malaria cases among children under five during the rainy season.
Health officials in Adamawa say hospital records from 2023 and 2024 show reduced admissions for severe malaria, a trend they attribute directly to the preventive campaign.
For families, the benefits are deeply personal. Malaria treatment is expensive for households that survive on daily income, often requiring repeated visits to clinics, laboratory tests and medication purchases. Preventing infection spares families not only emotional pain but financial hardship.
The Economic and Social Impact of Prevention
Beyond healthcare savings, malaria prevention has broader social implications. Children who avoid frequent illness attend school more regularly, while parents are able to maintain stable work routines instead of missing days to care for sick children.
In farming communities, where the rainy season is also the peak agricultural period, avoiding illness can mean the difference between a productive harvest and financial loss.
What Parents and Caregivers Need to Understand
Health authorities emphasize that the SMC medication is safe, free and effective only when taken consistently. Children must receive the drugs every month throughout the four-month cycle to maintain full protection.
Mild reactions such as vomiting may occur, but these are typically short-lived and manageable under the guidance of trained health workers. Parents are encouraged to report any unusual reactions immediately rather than discontinue the medication.
The use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets remains an essential complement to the programme. While SMC provides a protective shield, preventing mosquito bites further reduces the risk of infection.
Strengthening the System Beyond the Campaign
Adamawa’s malaria control strategy extends beyond seasonal medication. The Ministry of Health continues to distribute mosquito nets, train community health workers in rapid diagnostic testing and ensure the availability of free malaria treatment at primary healthcare centres.
Monitoring teams have been deployed to track progress throughout the campaign, identify areas with low coverage and resolve challenges such as logistics bottlenecks or community resistance.
A New Chapter in the Fight Against Malaria
For decades, malaria has shaped the rhythm of life in Adamawa, defining when families fall ill and when hospitals overflow. The 2025 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention campaign represents a deliberate attempt to rewrite that narrative.
As health workers continue their rounds, carrying life-saving medication from one household to another, the hope is that fewer parents will sit through sleepless nights beside feverish children, and fewer hospital wards will fill with preventable cases.
In the quiet determination of volunteers, the cooperation of caregivers and the resolve of policymakers, Adamawa is taking a decisive step towards a future where the rainy season no longer signals fear, but resilience.
