Winning The War Against Malaria

Malaria is one of the diseases that is prevalent not only in the coastal towns and communities, but also in the upland villages and cities. Malaria is caused by a germ that grows in the patient’s blood, and the anopheles mosquito specie is its carrier.

The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Langauge, International edition defines malaria as an infectious, chiefly tropical disease characterised by the periodic chills and fever, splenic enlargement and anemia.

For years, international organisations, such as World Health Organisation, Red Cross and United Nations International Children Education Fund, have been trying in their distinguished ways to combat this epidemic, yet only minimal success has been recorded now, the issue at stake is how the international communities and various governments, would, without further delay, map-out modalities aimed at solving the problem  of human destruction caused by this medical vampire.

Comparatively, the recent pronouncement by the Rivers State Governor, Right Honourable Chibuike Rotimi-Amaechi on an “Anti-Mosquito Chemical Spraying Scheme” during a stakeholders meeting, held in October is visionary. Expatiating the scheme, Amaechi said that the Rivers State Government will on February, 2010 flag on “Anti-Mosquito chemical spraying programme” for the entire state.

This vision by the state chief executive shows the high level of readiness to combat this deadly disease. Therefore, private partnership with government is as well needed on the fight to eradicate mosquitoes in our society.

The state government anti-mosquito chemical spraying scheme, if pursued vigoriously will as well, affect the genetic growth of all the species of mosquitoes. On this note, the government should vigoriously re-awaken the epidemiological unit of the state Ministry of Health through the provision of the necessary implement for proficiency. Particularly, the Public Health Enlightenment Department should be adequately funded to enable the unit perform credibly, considering the amphibious nature of Rivers State.

Public enlightenment campaigns should be carried out on ways to prevent the spread of malaria. And because of the diversity in terrians of the state, the mode of enlightenment for the riverine areas should be different from the upland communities.

In a nutshell, the most effective way to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, is generally the sanitisation of the immediate environment and surroundings.

This can be achieved by regularly clearing of the surroundings, draining the stagnant water, frequent emptying of water inside buckets, jars and coconut shells, within our environment.

Meanwhile, to make the rural areas feel the impact of the proposed anti-mosquito chemical spraying programme, the various public health units of all the health centres of the twenty-three local government areas of Rivers State should be re-invigorated by the government.

Again, since Rivers State is a multi-lingual state, where people from other ethnic nationalities are residing, it is imperative to recruit the services of Youth Corp members from other parts of the country as members of the enlightenment team to serve as interpreters. This measure will not only ensure proper assimilation of the subject matter, but will also fulfill the purpose of the establishment.

There is also the need for the State House of Assembly to pass a bill on Rivers State Anti-Mosquito Chemical Spraying into law to foster the legality of the scheme, while the government should make the sanitary inspectors more pro-active in their statutory functions, so that the anti-mosquito chemical spraying programme will become a reality in the entire state.

Abije is of the Radio Rivers

Roy Godpower Abije