MALARIA KILLING NIGERIA
The greatest murderer in history is, surely and without doubt, the arrogant but feeble mosquito, one of the smallest of the Lord’s creatures (and may the Lord perish it). The mosquito, sole distributor of malaria, wholesaler and retail monger of Africa’s greatest malady, seems to defy all efforts to bring it under control. God created […]
The greatest murderer in history is, surely and without doubt, the arrogant but feeble mosquito, one of the smallest of the Lord’s creatures (and may the Lord perish it). The mosquito, sole distributor of malaria, wholesaler and retail monger of Africa’s greatest malady, seems to defy all efforts to bring it under control.
God created Man and beast, Angels and the devil, water and fire. The Lord also created scorpions, snakes, flies, and other undesirables. And He created the greatest murderer of our time: mosquito. Only Allah knows why he created the mosquito, but he gave Man the faculty to invent the means to eradicate the insect.
The Roll Back Malaria (RBM, at rollbackmalaria.org) programme describes Malaria as “a preventable and treatable infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes that kills more than one million people each year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria is the leading cause of death for children under five. Because malaria is a global emergency that affects mostly poor women and children, malaria perpetuates a vicious cycle of poverty in the developing world. Malaria related-illnesses and mortality cost Africa’s economy alone USD 12 billion per year.”
The scary part of RBM’s reports are on the annual deaths from malaria where there are 881,000 deaths globally, but 801,000 are in Africa, 38,000 in the Middle East, 36,000 in Asia and only 3,000 in the Americas. No death from malaria is reported in Europe. This means that 91% of all malaria deaths are in Africa and, worse still, 85% of deaths are in children under 5 years of age.
The RBM report further says that the global population at risk from malaria is 3.3 billion (half of the world population), and the top five countries for malaria numbers are Nigeria with 57,506,000; Democratic Republic of the Congo with 23,620,000; Ethiopia with 12,405,000; Tanzania with 11,540,000; and Kenya with 11,342,000. To further underline Nigeria’s exposure to malaria, the report suggests almost all Nigerians are exposed to malaria.
A key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to halve malaria-associated mortality by 2015. Almost all other Millennium Development Goals (achieving universal education and reversing child and maternal mortality, for example) are related to achieving success in reducing the malaria burden. On a visit to Nigeria a couple of years ago, World Bank President Robert Zoellick had said that malaria may be the greatest impediment to Nigeria’s drive to realise the Millennium Development Goals.
Wikipedia states that malaria has been associated with major negative economic effects on regions where it is widespread. A comparison of average per capita GDP in 1995 between malarious and non-malarious countries demonstrates a fivefold difference ($1,526 USD versus $8,268 USD). Moreover, in countries where malaria is common, average per capita GDP has risen (between 1965 and 1990) only 0.4% per year, compared to 2.4% per year in other countries.
We have used the so-called Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs); we have used mosquito coil, we have used Shelltox, and Mobil, and Rambo, and Ota Pia-Pia, and Magic, and all sorts of gadgets and insecticides and poisons to rid ourselves of this millennium under-development menace called the mosquito, yet the slim devil, the harbinger of malaria, has refused to go away. And we have nothing against slims, do we.
Roll Back Malaria, in its discussion of vector control, or the prevention of malaria through mosquito control, states that “Vector control is intended to protect individuals against infective mosquito bites and, at the community level, to reduce the intensity of local malaria transmission. The two most powerful and most broadly applied interventions are insecticide-treated nets (ITN) and indoor residual spraying (IRS). In some specific settings and circumstances (if the breeding sites are few, fixed, and easy to identify) these core interventions may be complemented by other methods such as larval control or environmental management.
One effective way to fight malaria is the use of DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), one of the most well-known synthetic pesticides, in vector control. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history. In the second half of World War II, it was used with great effect to control mosquitoes spreading malaria and lice transmitting typhus, resulting in dramatic reductions in the incidence of both diseases. For example, in Sri Lanka, use of DDT in vector control reduced cases from about 3 million per year before spraying to just 29 in 1964. Thereafter the program was halted to save money, and malaria rebounded to 600,000 cases in 1968.
RBM adds that “DDT has comparatively long residual efficacy (up to 6 months) against malaria vectors and plays an important role in the management of vector resistance. Countries can use DDT for IRS for as long as necessary and in the quantities needed, provided that the guidelines and recommendations of WHO and the Stockholm Convention are met and until locally appropriate, cost-effective alternatives are available for a sustainable transition from DDT.”
One Nigerian who understands that the best way to tackle malaria is through vector control is Dr. Mathias Offoboche, one-time Deputy Governor of old Cross River State. Dr. Offoboche, in a write-up in 2005 advocating for the use of DDT in vector control, states: “No war against malaria can be successful without malaria vector control. Indoor residual spraying of DDT has been established to be the safe, tested, cheap, sustainable weapon against mosquitoes.
“The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria (GFATM), a major Donor Agency, experimented with DDT indoor residual spraying in the copper mines of Zambia. The experiments were so successful that GFATM now uses DDT in the whole of Zambia. Malaria death rates in Swaziland which uses DDT is now 2-4%; South Africa was pressurized to stop using DDT in 1996 but because the incidence of malaria sky-rocketed, it ignored the corrupting financial aids of Donor Agencies and recommenced the use of DDT in 2000.”
Writing on malariaeradicationinafrica.org, Dr. Offoboche further argues that “The business of bed nets is booming at the expense of malaria control, their purchase is more profitable than their usage. Opposition to the use of DDT is also responsible for the diversion of huge donor funds to the purchase of mosquito bed nets the use of which is unpopular, unenforceable and less effective in the long run.”
Lack of electricity has multiplied several folds the problem of malaria in this country. Most people had depended on electric fans – ceiling fans, table fans, standing fans, wall fans, all sorts of fans – to ward off mosquitoes. Without electricity, this darkest, most evil and most dangerous of insects always has a field day. Let my fan work!
Someone has said, “If you think you’re too small to be effective, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”