Need For Concerted Effort Against Malaria

The United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in a message to mark the world malaria Day last week, applauded the progress made in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria by the global community.

Ban expressed satisfaction that in a short time, the world has gone from simply trying to hold malaria at bay to the realistic goal of delivering effective and affordable care to all who need it.

The secretary General also noted that since 2003, international commitment to malaria control had increased more than five folds to 1.7 billion dollars in 2009, while the scientific community had also set a research agenda for developing the tools and strategies that would eradicate malaria.

 The World Health Organisation (WHO), on its part, said its campaign to confirm diagnosis of malaria before treatment was yielding results with a new evaluation of malaria rapid diagnostic test that helps health workers quickly identify which patients had the disease and the need for immediate treatment.

Amidst these progress reports, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Ms Ann Venemean had cautioned during the World Malaria Day celebration, that though there was evidence to show that malaria control interventions work, there was need for it to be scaled up if the UN Secretary General’s goal of universal coverage for all endemic countries were to be achieved in December, 2010.

Venemean’s advice is timely, especially for Nigeria which has been identified as one of the malaria endemic countries, accounting for an estimated 300,000 of the 850,000 global annual malaria mortality rate.

The current malaria death toll is unarguably too high to be ignored, especially when one considers the fact that majority of these deaths occur among the most vulnerable groups – women, and children under five years of age.

There is no better time for the government and people of Nigeria to redouble their pace and join the international community in the match towards eradication of the malaria pandemics than now that the world appears fully sensitized, willing and are indeed making commendable strides to bailout the sub-Saharan Africa, where over 90 per cent of malaria incidences occur.

We urge  governments in Nigeria to rise up to their obligations of strengthening public health institutions through increased funding and monitoring, procurement of genuine drugs, distribution of mosquito treated nets and mounting of effective environmental control systems in all parts of the country, but above all, attention must also, be paid to the preventive approach to malaria control. The citizenry must be continuously enlightened and sensitized on their individual responsibilities.

For instance, individuals must be made to appreciate the need to keep their immediate environments clean in order to dislodge mosquito habitats such as dirty ponds, grasses and blocked drinage systems. We must also be enlightened enough on the need to avoid self-medication, a culture that is often boosted by poverty and high cost of medicare.

Undoubtedly, malaria attack has for long remained a major threat to the working population, limiting optimum performance among workers and reducing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

But of course, the bigger tragedy is in the high mortality rate recorded mostly among women and children.

We therefore, insist that the campaign against malaria must neither be left for the international community and donor agencies alone nor the governments of Nigeria or individuals. Only a concerted effort against malaria can eradicate the disease and save not only Nigeria but the entire sub-Saharan Africa from the huge losses incurred as a result of the high prevalence rate of malaria.