Contending With Malaria Scourge

Malaria is one of the health problems of Nigeria. The incidence of malaria is so high in the country that it has caught the concern of international bodies such as the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF).

  According to the latter, about 97 per cent of the Nigerian population is at risk of infection resulting in 300,000 malaria deaths annually. It pointed out that a lot of these deaths occurred among children under the age of five.

Earlier, a United Nations Special Envoy, Ray Chambers had said that 250,000 Nigerian children died yearly from malaria-induced illnesses. Mr Chambers stated this while paying a courtesy visit to the Vice President, Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

He called for concerted efforts to address the malaria scourge. Chambers stressed that lives could be saved if all hands were on deck to address the pandemic. The envoy disclosed that the United Nations mission was in Nigeria to assess its programmes on malaria and maternal mortality.

However, it should be noted that the international community is currently observing World Malaria Day. And Nigeria, as had been stated, is prone to the malaria scourge. The country should, therefore, wake up from its slumber and face the scourge of malaria. We should realize that malaria, is deadlier than the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

It is, therefore, very important to make serious efforts towards the eradication of malaria in Nigeria. We appear to be talking about malaria yearly without making any attempts towards its cure. The main vector of the malaria disease is mosquito. We should, therefore, lay emphasis on the prevention of the disease by taking adequate measures in this direction. 

Nevertheless, in its contributions towards the eradication of the disease, the Rivers State Government, recently distributed more than one million insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets to households in the state. Revealing this at a seminar on malaria control in Port Harcourt recently, the Director, Malaria Control Unit, in the state Ministry of Health, Dr Justina Jumbo, decried the under-utilisation of the nets by beneficiaries. She emphasised that this had hampered the campaign against malaria parasites in the state. Dr Jumbo added that the state government plans to partner with patent medicine vendors to fight the disease.

Beneficiaries of the insecticide-treated bed nets should, therefore, make efforts to use the nets as directed by the Ministry of Health. The nets are distributed to check the parasites being introduced into the body system as a result of mosquito bites.

It should be noted that these parasites cause the death of millions of people in Nigeria, and indeed, Africa. Those, who have got the insecticide-treated bed nets should, therefore, not hesitate to utilize them. These nets are distributed to save them from mosquito bites and early death.

We have since gathered that some beneficiaries of the nets sell them at the markets to make cheap money instead of using them. This is a condemnable behaviour. In fact, the nets are distributed to save them from imminent death. Why then do they sell them? Beneficiaries are advised to stop the habit, and make use of the insecticide-treated bed nets.

In a similar effort to control malaria in the state, the Rivers State Government decided to collaborate with a Cuban company to build malaria control factory in Port Harcourt.

Speaking with the Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Elio Savon Oliva, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi said since the partnership had blossomed into an agreement he was confident that in five years, malaria would be eradicated in Rivers State. He assured the Cuban ambassador that his government was prepared to fulfill its part of the agreement. Amaechi said that the Port Harcourt malaria control factory, when completed, would produce about six million cubic litres of vector insecticides for malaria control.

We welcome the cooperation between the Rivers State Government and Cuba in the fight against the disease, and the malaria vector. Evidently, the factory, when completed, will go a long way in checking malaria in this part of the world. The Rivers State Government should, therefore, not relent in this very significant endeavour.

Nonetheless, malaria is a deadly tropical disease, whose vector is mosquito. A definitive cure, therefore, means killing all the mosquitoes in the tropical region. Meanwhile, we should all wake up to the challenge of malaria.

Dr Tolofari, fellow, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria, writes from Port Harcourt.         

Mann Tolofari