Malaria is endemic in Nigeria and 32 years old Toyin Obasola
and her family of six residing in Ibadan, Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria, is part
of those who regularly fall ill from the disease.
“The infection seems to transfer from one person to another
in the family. Anytime we feel a headache, feverish, or vomiting, and go to the
health centre for tests, it usually turns out to be malaria.
Buying antimalarial drugs is not cheap. It became
embarrassing because the health workers in my locality already knew my family.
Malaria is the major ailment we treat, which is why I believe that there is
something in my community that mosquitoes like, says Mrs Obasola, a mother of
four.
For Mrs Obasola and her household, treating malaria almost
became a pass time until she took the advice of a health worker who taught her
to sleep inside insecticide-treated mosquito nets, including using other
protective mechanisms like wearing long sleeves and covering all water pots and
storage tanks to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding in them.
“Since my children started sleeping inside the nets, their
malaria episode has reduced. I heard of insecticide-treated mosquito nets
before but did not use them because people say it generates heat. Malaria is a
preventable disease. It is transmitted by the female anopheles mosquito and
killed an estimated 619 000 people globally in 2021.
Unfortunately, the African continent, which Nigeria is part
of, is home to 95% of malaria cases and
96% of malaria deaths. Children under five accounted for about 80% of all
malaria deaths in the region.
The 2022 World Malaria Report indicates that Malaria cases
continued to rise in 2021, but at a slower rate compared to the period
2019–2020: cases stood at an estimated 247 million in 2021, 245 million in
2020, and 232 million in 2019 respectively.
With malaria being one of the deadliest diseases globally,
the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have been devising various
strategic tools to solve the problem. One of them is the use of
insecticide-treated nets.
“We advise people especially mothers and pregnant women to
prevent infection by mosquitos sleeping under insecticide-treated nets, for
pregnant women, to take intermittent preventive treatment in pregancnay from
their 2nd trimester, get tested for
malaria before using antimalarial drugs and to keep their environment clean to
prevent mosquito breeding areas, says Mary Yarda, a nurse at a private health
facility in Abuja with 15 years of work experience.
“We advise people not to self-medicate but get tested before
treatment. The diagnosis and treatment of malaria has evolved over the years.
We now use rapid Test Diagnosis (RDTs) kits for malaria screening, in addition
to the microscopy.
This allows for quick results for malaria tests before
treatment because the waiting time has also been reduced, she says,
To mark the 2023 World Malaria Day, the WHO Nigeria
Representative Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, says it is time to rethink and
revitalize our strategies by investing, innovating and implementing smartly to
eliminate malaria.
Reading the WHO Regional Director's message during a media
roundtable in Abuja, Dr Mulombo says
“World Malaria Day allows us to renew political commitments and bolster
investments in malaria prevention and control.
He calls on Member States to redouble their commitment to
implement an ambitious and innovative acceleration plan to rapidly reduce the
burden of malaria and save the lives of its populations.
“To achieve this, Governments need to mobilize more
resources and technical capacities at domestic and international levels and
build effective partnerships and multisectoral mechanisms to help strengthen
preventive measures and improve coverage of malaria case management services,
he says.
To limit the transmission of malaria, WHO has been
supporting the government of Nigeria and its other partners at the federal and
state level to implement various malaria control/elimination programmes across
the country.
For Instance, WHO has been supporting the National Malaria
Elimination Programme (NMEP), to strengthen malaria surveillance, drug and
insecticide resistance monitoring, advocacy and resource mobilization, data use
and evidence generation, capacity building, service delivery including delivery
of ITNs, diagnosis and traetament, seasonal malaria chemoprevention,
Intermittent preventive treatment in pregannct women etc.
Likewise with funding from the Global fund and President’s
Malaria Initiative, WHO is supporting Seasonal malaria chemoprevention in
Adamawa and Yobe states, IDP malaria control in Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe
states and technical assistance to strengthening malaria prevention, diagnosis, treatment and surveillance.
World Malaria Day is commemorated on 25 April every year to
raise awareness about the deadly disease. The theme for the 2023 World Malaria
Day is Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement. The National
slogan for the 2023 WMD is Act Now!
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