The economic burden of malaria in Nigeria may increase to about $2.8bn by 2030, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said.
Speaking in Abuja Tuesday during the commemoration of this year’s World Malaria Day, he said the economic burden of malaria in Nigeria for 2022 alone was estimated at $1.6bn.
Represented by Permanent Secretary Mamman Mamuda, he said it was estimated that approximately 55 million cases of malaria and nearly 90,000 malaria-related deaths occurred each year in Nigeria.
He said the out-of-pocket expenditure for malaria was estimated to be over 70 percent and Nigerians paid as much as N2,280.00 on each malaria case.
He said successful control of malaria would increase productivity, improve health, reduce school absenteeism, reduce poverty and facilitate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
He said, “Consequently, we must continue to fight to achieve zero malaria by 2030, in line with the World Health organisation’s Global Technical Strategy.”
Ehanire said the theme of this year’s celebration ‘Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement’ was a clarion call to the populace, particularly those living in malaria-endemic regions who accounted for most of the burden and deaths, to avail themselves of the available tools and strategies to enable us to reach those in need.
He said salient achievements to move the nation towards a zero-malaria status included reductions in malaria prevalence from 27% in 2015 to 23% in 2018 and 22% in 2021, distribution of over 130.42 million Long Lasting Insecticidal nets (LLINS) campaigns in 33 states and reaching a total of about 63 million children with Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention.
He said Nigeria had also successfully submitted an application to GAVI for the RTS.S malaria vaccine allocation, adding that this was expected to be in the country by April 2024.
He said more recently, the process of having a second malaria vaccine was commenced by researchers from the Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
He said, “This second vaccine called R21/Matrix M has gone through the first and second stages of clinical trials in some selected African countries, with promising results. Furthermore, there is an ongoing phase III trial which is about to be completed.”
The WHO Health yesterday enjoined Nigeria and other member states to keep malaria high on their agendas in allocating resources to health.
It said to reverse these trends and accelerate progress, “we must rethink and revitalize our strategies by investing, innovating and implementing smartly.”
This is even as the House of Representatives says malaria remains a significant public health challenge in Nigeria with an estimated 97 million cases and 300,000 deaths annually.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, in her statement to mark this year’s World Malaria Day, said malaria had been a stubborn public health enemy, stressing that malaria deaths remained unacceptably high and cases had continued to increase since 2015.
She said in 2021, malaria killed 619,000 people, of whom approximately 96 percent lived in Africa.
“It is 6-20 times more likely to spread in mosquito-prone environments than the Omicron variant of sars-cov-2,” she added.
She said the WHO African Region alone accounted, in 2021, for an estimated 234 million malaria cases and 593,000 deaths, thus bearing the heaviest burden of over 95 percent of cases and 96 percent of deaths globally.
“Our region, therefore, continues to be hardest hit by this deadly disease partly because too many people do not have access to preventive and curative interventions. Nearly 30% of the population in most African countries cannot access essential health services, and most people face unacceptably high expenditures on health care. Significant inequities affect the most vulnerable, young children and women, whereas about 80% of malaria cases and deaths occur in children under five.”
She said in 2021, endemic countries and partners mobilized only 50 percent of the estimated $7.3bn required globally to stay on track to defeat malaria.
She said the first malaria vaccine, recommended by WHO to prevent malaria in children (also known as RTS,S), was saving lives. “In Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, where nearly 1.5 million children have received the vaccine through a WHO-coordinated pilot programme.”
She said at least 28 countries in Africa had expressed interest in introducing the vaccine, with some additional countries to start in early 2024.
She further said the RTS,S malaria vaccine deployment had been extended beyond the three initial countries and several other innovative products are in the pipeline.
Earlier in a statement yesterday, the spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, said four African countries, including Nigeria, accounted for over half of all malaria deaths worldwide.
He said though progress had been made in reducing the burden of malaria in Nigeria, much work still needed to be done to eliminate it.
He said the ninth National Assembly had identified lack of domestic financing and lack of use of local content in terms of production and patronage of local manufacturing of anti-malarial drugs as key challenges.
“To address this, the sum of over $300m has been approved under the World Bank and the Islamic Bank IMPACT projects to address and compliment donor support.
“Despite the passage of the legislative resolution in December 2021 to access the credit facility, none of the essential commodities has been procured.”
He alleged that the lukewarm attitude of the National Malaria Elimination Programme’s leadership and slow actions from the United Nations Office for Project Services, the procurement agency for the Islamic Bank funding and the World Bank had affected the urgent procurements of these commodities despite availability of the funds and commodities locally produced in Nigeria.
“This has given the members of the National Assembly, “as reported by the chairman, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Committee of the House, a great concern due to lack of procurement of these commodities.
“In view of the above, the NMEP, UNOPs and the World Bank are urgently call upon to fast track the procurements of these life-saving commodities to mitigate the high burden of malaria in Nigeria as reiterated in the 2023 World Malaria Theme”.
Yesterday, Executive Director, Africa Youth Growth Foundation, Arome Salifu, during a community outreach at Lugbe, FCT, said despite efforts to prevent, detect and treat malaria, “many Nigerians are still not receiving the necessary services.”
The Pest Control Association of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to combat malaria through effective pest control measures.
The chairman of the FCT’s chapter of the association, Terungwa Abari, in a statement, said: “The way to go is to curtail malaria and vector borne disease from source by tackling the vector and creating a sound environment.”
By Ojoma Akor, Balarabe Alkassim, Abbas Jimoh & Terkula Igidi
