‘One Of Five Maternal Deaths Caused By Malaria’

Global Shapers’ Com
munity, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Friday said that one out of every five maternal deaths in the country was caused by malaria.
The NGO’s Director of Project, Mr Olamide Olaniyan,made the assertion in Ibadan at an awareness campaign ahead of the April 25 World Malaria Day.
Olaniyan stated that the day’s theme, “Invest in the Future, Defeat Malaria’’ is to encourage continued investment in the fight against the dreaded disease.
“While the data is sometimes inconclusive, we have heard it now that one out of every five maternal deaths is as a result of malaria.  “This shows that it kills more pregnant women than HIV/AIDS and it serves as a major contributing factor to maternal mortality rate.
“Also, one out of every malaria incidence in the world happens in Nigeria,’’ Olaniyan said.
According to him, the severity of the disease was grossly underestimated and this had resulted in sometimes avoidable complications arising from the disease.
Olaniyan said the dearth of medical personnel; self-medication and fake drugs were major contributing factors to the high rate of malaria deaths.
He called for more functioning primary health centres with the presence of at least a doctor in each centre to ensure that people had access to a physician and to discourage self-medication.
The NGO’s founding curator, Mr Olufemi Babalogbon, said that malaria control should be sustained to promote a healthy and more productive population.
“Prevention of malaria will lead to a better quality of life for both parents and children and a better world.
“People can function better and make better use of their day and we can have better health indices,’’ Babalogbon said.
The NGO during its visit to Idi-Ogungun Primary Health Centre, Agodi-Gate, distributed insecticide-treated nets and Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits to some pregnant women.
Babalogbon said the RDT kits further assisted in accurate and timely diagnosis of malaria.