The Ebola scare has been defeated and hopefully we will see no reoccurrence in our shores. This has been one of the few instances we have moved swiftly and effectively to contain a crisis and kudos should be given to the health authorities and workers that put their lives on the line as we battled to stop the spread of the dreaded disease. We were able to bend our considerable human and material resources towards combating the Ebola plague before it could get much of a foothold.
Perhaps we succeeded in this endeavour, unlike other crisis that we have faced, because of the pathological fear that ‘Ebola’ evoked throughout the land. In a surge of collective fear, our response was so effective that even the US government is looking to Nigeria to learn the strategies we employed. Information on symptoms of the disease and precautions to take was widely disseminated; there was an attendant rise in personal hygiene; medical authorities quickly set up quarantine stations and private organisations were quick to make donations to help the fight. All in all, Nigerians showed a remarkable will to surmount the Ebola challenge.
It then begs the question, why haven’t we been able to craft an effective response to a more insidious killer, malaria? Maybe it is because as Josef Stalin said, “One death is a tragedy, a million a statistic”. Ebola killed eight souls and every one of those deaths made national news, but malaria kills hundreds of Nigerians every single day and no one hears about this sad fact. One man came to our country and infected a score of Nigerians with eight of them dying from the disease. In that same period an estimated 15,000,000 Nigerians contracted malaria with more than 48,000 dying from the disease.
In spite of these facts, there is a worrying unconcern by government and civil society, those that should know better. It seems as a nation we do not fear malaria enough.
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Malaria kills. The disease kills more than 300,000 Nigerians annually. According to the Nigerian Ministry of Health, malaria is responsible for 60 percent of outpatient visits to health facilities; 30 percent of childhood deaths; 25 percent of deaths in children under one year; and 11 percent of maternal deaths. Furthermore, the Federal Ministry of Health estimates a financial loss from malaria (in the form of treatment costs, prevention, loss of man-hours, etc.) to be roughly N132 billion (approximately $838,564,000) per year.
We need the kind of response and rallying cry from the government and populace that allowed us to bring a swift end to the Ebola epidemic. Just as the focus was on preventing the transmission of the Ebola virus, the focus of the malaria campaign should be on preventing the contracting of the malaria parasite. The campaign of free mosquito nets and malaria drugs is not the answer. We need to shift our strategy to environmental measures, the eradication of the mosquito populations and breeding grounds. Several countries have already successfully achieved this feat, and just like the world is looking to us for lessons on fighting the Ebola virus, so also should we seek to learn and adopt the measures and strategies adopted by these countries. It is not as hard as it might seem. If only we could channel the same level of human and financial resources marshalled in the fight against Ebola towards reducing the mosquito population in our environment, we would certainly see a drastic reduction in malaria-related mortality.
The time to act is now. It is almost a certainty that 90 percent of individuals living in Nigeria have at one time or the other contracted malaria. This is by definition a pandemic and it would be remiss on our part if we fold our hands and do nothing. Already, the medical community is reporting the growing resistance of the malaria parasites to available treatments. Let us not wait until a super-resistant strain of the malaria parasite is birthed before we begin to see malaria as the threat it really is.
While we wait for some sort of coordinated action from the government and health authorities, we too, as individuals and communities, can begin to do our part. Eliminate or cover up stagnant water; remove weeds and trash, especially containers that can hold water, from the environment; fumigate the surroundings of your home regularly; and pour used engine oil and other emulsions over open drainages. These small steps, especially if undertaken in a community-wide effort, can go a long way towards reducing the incidence of malaria. Your actions today might save your life or that of your loved ones tomorrow. Take responsibility.
Patrick Awodu