Tackle malaria like COVID-19, group tells FG

The Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN) has asked the Federal Government to tackle malaria with the same seriousness it tackled COVID-19.

ACOMIN, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working on the prevention, treatment and mitigation of malaria in Nigeria, berated the government for neglecting the fight against malaria.

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Addressing journalists on Monday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Coordinator of ACOMIN, Mrs. Ibironke Olatunji, insisted that if the Federal Government had handled malaria the same way it handled COVID-19, Nigeria would have been free of malaria.

Mrs. Olatunji called for more budgetary allocation for malaria programmes.

According to her, malaria has killed and is still killing more Nigerians than COVID-19, hence government at all levels must desist from paying lip service to the prevention of malaria.

She also appealed to the Ogun State government to resuscitate the free distribution of Intermittent Prevention Malaria tablets to pregnant women, which according to her, was stopped in 2018.