Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State (right), chatting with former Deputy Governor of the state, Engr Tele Ikuru, during the latter’s 50th birthday celebration in Port Harcourt, recently

The Federal Government, yesterday, renewed its resolve to eliminate malaria in the country by the year 2020.
The National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Dr Nnenna Ezeigwe, said this in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Ezeigwe said all hands must be on deck to achieve a malaria free country by the targeted year through the Test, Treat and Track (TTT) policy.
She explained that the malaria policy states that every suspected malaria case must be tested and confirmed before treatment can be administered on patients.
According to her, the TTT policy has been in force for many years in the country with little or no compliance.
“But we discovered that it has not been complied with. After looking carefully at the problem, we discovered that over 60 per cent of the Nigerian population go to the pharmacists and patent medicine dealers for treatment of malaria and other ailments.
“This is why we decided to work in collaboration with the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), and we are working together with the Lagos State Government, Association of Patent Medicine Vendors to make sure that it is achieved.
“We have discussed with PCN and we agreed that pharmacists and patent medicine vendors can test for malaria after been properly trained.
“But if we discover that PPMV continues to treat without testing and there is evidence for it, then such persons will not be registered.
“This is part of the agreement we have with the PCN that it should be part of their registration criteria, they will be properly trained and then implement it this is what we expect,‘’ she said.
Ezeigwe said that since 2009 chloroquine has not been the drug of choice after several studies.
“It was beneficial at some point but then at some point resistance sets in, the parasite we were fighting developed resistant to the drug (chloroquine) and then it became useless as a malaria drug.
“So, the current treatment that has been proven to be very effective is the Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) and we are also monitoring the ACT to check if there is any resistant at any point.
“But for now we are comfortable to say that ACT is still very efficacious in this country.
Ezeigwe said that chloroquine has been banned for the treatment of malaria and that it should not be bought or sold at the counter in any pharmacy or shop.
She said that the disease that they claim that chloroquine was been used for has to be diagnosed by a qualified medical doctor.
She also said that the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) training that was being conducted for health workers was mostly negative and that makes her happy.
“It shows the effectiveness of the RDTs because they are able to dictate positive and negative cases of malaria.
“If the RDT reads negative then it is negative, because the RDT is 100 per cent effective.
“It is only when it starts coming out positive, that you can begin to get worried and you can start doubting if the positivity was correct, so it is good news.’’
However, the coordinator pointed out that some lab technicians in Nigeria lack the skills to see and dictate result correctly.
“As soon as they see that fever was the case of a patient they just conclude that it is malaria without seeing anything through the micro-scope.
“When you look under the micro-scope, you will see a lot of things like the white and red blood cells you will see the parasite plasmodium.
“You will also see what we call artefact which can be like air bubble.
“So, when they don’t see anything and do not know what to attribute the sickness to, they just write malaria which is the easiest and most common thing for anyone to believe.’’
She said that the RDT was accurate and urged people to have confidence in it because it was 100 per cent tested and confirmed.
Ezeigwe noted that if the RDT reads positive the patient would be treated with the right drug, which is the ACT, and then get okay.
She added that the test was necessary before treatment because if the drugs continue to be taken without malaria being positive in the body, it would start developing resistance.
“And that will take us back to the case of chloroquine, and that is what we are trying to avoid.
“And if the parasite becomes resistant to the drugs then we would not have drug to treat it with and it will be increasing.
“And if it is increasing we would not make any progress towards elimination so it is going to aid it by making sure that the ACTs remain efficacious.
“The Global fund is supporting the private sector mechanism and they have subsidised the cost of anti-malaria when you request for ACT with the green leaf, it is been sold at a very cheap rate for about N200 or N150 per pack.
“So, for those thinking that it would be expensive I am here to say that they are very cheap and affordable.
“I advise the pharmacists and PPMVs that any patient that walks into the pharmacy and refuses to get tested before requesting for treatment should not be attended to.
“The person can stay home with his/her fever because by the time they try as many shops as possible they will decide on what is best for them.
“The pharmacists should know that this will bring them more customers because when your patients know that when they come to you, you will run the test on them before treatment they will tend to have more trust in your shop.
“The goal standard in any healthcare is that you must test before you treat and malaria has been neglected for a while and has killed so many people ignorantly that is why we are doing this to save Nigerians.
“We are covering 10 states in Nigeria in this particular exercise and Lagos is just one of them.
“The country is very large and we have about 24 states to cover, we are been supported by the Global Fund and they are supporting the 24 states,’’ said the coordinator.