Beyond the Malaria Day ritual

The theme of this year’s WMD is “Invest in the future: defeat malaria” as in the previews two years (2013 & 2014). Malaria is caused by the female anopheles mosquito through plasmodium parasite. People with malaria often experience fevers, chills, and flu-like illness and, if left untreated, they may develop severe complications and lead to […]

The theme of this year’s WMD is “Invest in the future: defeat malaria” as in the previews two years (2013 & 2014). Malaria is caused by the female anopheles mosquito through plasmodium parasite. People with malaria often experience fevers, chills, and flu-like illness and, if left untreated, they may develop severe complications and lead to death.
In 2013, an estimated 198 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, and over 500,000 people died, mostly children (about 78%) in Africa with 40% of those deaths occurring in just two countries -Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo! About half of the world’s population of about 3.2 billion are at risk to some degree.
According to Malaria Consortium in Nigeria, Malaria is the leading cause of child death in the country and around 250,000 Nigerian children die every year from the disease. While children under the age of five and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable, almost the entire population of Nigeria is at risk of contracting the disease.
However a lot of progress has been made globally in tackling malaria through nongovernmental organisations and various initiatives by governments, local and international health organisations. For example, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative supports four scientifically proven key interventions to prevent and treat malaria. These are the promotion of insecticide-treated mosquito nets; indoor residual spraying; intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women; and effective diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Also over these years, the state and federal governments in Nigeria have through different initiatives and approaches helped in combating the disease.
A lot of factors militate against the fight with malaria in Nigeria, including poverty, lack of adequate well trained personnel, lack of or inadequate research funding and fake or counterfeit anti-malaria drugs circulating.
New administrations coming into office in Nigeria at state and federal levels should endeavour to re-energise the effort to combat malaria head-on, complemented by NGOs and the international community.
Mustapha Saddiq, Federal Medical Centre, Katsina<[email protected]>;