World Malaria Day is marked on April 25 every year to increase awareness on how to tackle a tropical disease that is easily the biggest killer in Nigeria and many African countries.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. People with malaria suffer from chills and fever.
The theme for this year was ‘Ready to beat malaria’. It was an apt theme, a reference to how malaria becomes epidemic from time to time across the states with no clear response from the government. For instance, some months ago malaria ravaged Kano State where it reached epidemic proportion, which caught government and other stakeholders napping. Or it could be a pointer that government has a lot to do in order to beat malaria.
Nigeria has the second largest burden of malaria in the world. according to Minister of Health Professor Isaac Adewole, over 90 percent of Nigeria’s population is at risk of malaria, children and pregnant women being even more vulnerable to the disease. The National Malaria Elimination Program [NMEP] said deaths caused by malaria have been estimated at over 300,000 per year in Nigeria. This is more deaths per year than caused by HIV/AIDS, and a major contributor to mortality in children and pregnant women.
the malaria burden is huge on both the government and the people. Since the banning of chloroquine for malaria treatment and the approval of Artemisinin based Combination Therapy (ACTs), the new drugs have been found to be too expensive for ordinary Nigerians. In addition, the new policy of having a test first unlike before where every fever symptom was treated as malaria first, even if a test would be carried out subsequently has added to the cost of treatment. The cost of the test is N5000, more than the cost of the drugs that is about N2000. The introduction of taxes on importation of malarial drugs in 2016 also added to the cost of the drugs.
Nigeria depends heavily on foreign agencies on key aspects that affect the wellbeing of it citizens. therefore, it is not surprising that funding for malaria control effort is largely done by international donors, particularly the Global Fund, and its funding has been decreasing. to make malaria drugs affordable for Nigerians, since 2012 private sector co-payment mechanism hosted by the National Malaria Elimination Program subsides ‘ACT with green logo,’ which were meant to be sold at not more than a dollar. But the cost of the medicines has risen from N600 to N1000 in some pharmacies. There is also the problem of fake drugs or substandard ones with no efficacy whereby one would treat malaria which keeps recurring for months. citizens are usually left to their own devises and many resort to herbal concoctions to treat the malaria, which could lead to developing other problems from the concoctions.
In commemoration of this year’s World Malaria Day, the World Health Organisation [WHO] called on Nigeria and other African countries affected by malaria to work with development partners to boost investment in malaria prevention and control. WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti made the call in her speech by WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Wondi Alemu.
The government should do more on the funding and subsidise the drugs. It should also provide enabling environment to encourage local production of drugs. Over the years there have been campaigns on using insecticide treated nets which were given to pregnant women in hospitals, students and so on. Yet many don’t like using them. As such there should be more awareness on the importance of using them and on sanitation.
People should clear their surroundings of stagnant water and clear their gutters too, which unfortunately they ignore even where there is monthly sanitation day.
The devastating effect of malaria should be tackled head on. Nigeria should be ‘ready to beat malaria.’ It should not leave the fate of its citizens at the hands of international donors.
