In recent times, malaria in sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria has assumed a worrisome dimension with nerve-rending statistics on the devastating impact of the disease dominating the media space.
With malaria responsible for 60 percent of outpatient visits to health facilities, 30 percent of childhood deaths and 11 percent of maternal deaths, financial losses from malaria (in the form of treatment and prevention costs, and loss of working hours) is put at N132 billion annually, according to Federal Ministry of Health.
As Nigeria joins other nations to mark World Malaria Day with the theme “Invest in the future. Defeat malaria,” stakeholders have called for continued investment in malaria control as malaria contributes to poverty, low productivity, huge man hour losses and the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Speaking to BusinessDay, Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of Health said that poverty was a hindrance to the ownership of mosquito nets as individuals spend 45 percent of their income to manage their health challenges.
“Malaria bites the income of families; malaria means poverty and the elimination strategy should be based on cost-effectiveness. Continued investment in malaria control would aid Nigeria in achieving millennium development goals especially those relating to improving child survival and improving maternal health,” Chukwu explained.
With the Economic Committee of West Africa States (ECOWAS) commission taking the war against malaria to flag off the construction of a biolarvicides factory in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Chukwu called for successful elimination of malaria as the Millennium Development Goals target of reducing infant mortality by 25 percent in 2015 gets closer.
“We will treat those suffering from malaria now, and then do larviciding. It will be done over two years. If we do it once, we won’t get it; it will be continuous and if all of us do it together, including Cameroun on our Eastern border, we will surely eliminate malaria in this country,” Chukwu stated.
This move to eradicate malaria is coming on the heels of latest polls by NOI Polls Limited revealing that almost 7 in 10 Nigerians (66 percent) had malaria at least once in 2012 with about 13 percent treating the ailment with the use of local herbs such as Agbo (leaf and roof based concoction), Dogonyaro, Neem leaves etc.
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The survey, conducted by the research organisation in technical partnership with the Gallup Organisation (USA), between April 8-10 2013 showed that 44 percent of Nigerians visited hospital to a physician in the case of having episodes of malaria while 38 percent bought anti-malarials from the pharmacy/chemist outlet.
Further analysis by geo-political zones shows majority of residents in the North, North-Central (43 percent) North-East (38 percent) and North-West (38 percent) did not have malaria in 2012. However, in the South, South-South (77 percent), South-East (75 percent) and South-West (64 percent) had episodes of malaria, due to the greater presence of rivers, in the South with the North having mostly land locked.
A cursory look at malaria funding in Nigeria shows that as the Federal Ministry of Health proposed N1.8 billion for the procurement of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) for additional three states, a World Health Organisation annual assessment report released December 2012 showed that Nigeria would need N160 billion ($1 billion) of the N38.4 billion ($2.4 billion) urgently required to stave off backsliding and resurgences of malaria resistance as early as 2013 and 2014.
The report noted that over 90 percent of the world’s malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, adding that approximately $3.6 billion in additional funding was required for anti-malaria programmes in the region between now and 2015. 80 percent of malaria deaths occur in 14 endemic countries, with Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India among the worst affected, the report said.
Recently, Nigeria and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, signed two grant agreements valued at $225 million as part of a Phase-2 grant to boost malaria prevention and treatment in the country.
The grants is aimed at achieving nationwide coverage of bed nets through mass campaigns and routine distribution, increase access to medicine and diagnostic tests with the main recipients of the additional grants being National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and the Society for Family Health (SFH).
Furthermore, Malaria Action Program for States (MAPS) signed a five-year, $79.9 million project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in Nigeria.
Through the MAPS project, FHI 360—in partnership with Health Partners International and the malaria consortium is meant to increase the quality, access, and uptake of malaria control interventions and strengthen program management capacity at various levels of government levels. The MAPS project which began in 2010 and is operational until 2015, is implementing activities in Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Oyo, and Zamfara States.
