Nigeria is said to have the highest number of malaria incidents globally. It is said to be accounting for 27% of global burden, Malaria in Nigeria is more in the northern and north-eastern parts of the country.
According to Wikipedia, an estimated number of 76% of Nigerians are at risk of malaria by living living in high transmission areas.
In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO)has said that Nigerians need to come up with a well coordinated intervention as well as implementation for government to effectively drive the campaign of this eradication. The UN agency has advised the Federal government to ensure that the present administration commits towards salvaging the health sector, their commitment should be channeled in a way that it’ll yield good results.
At the recently concluded Roundtable conference on Rethinking Malaria Elimination in Nigeria held in Abuja, Africa’s Regional Director of WHO Matshidiso Moeti gave the above advice. Other stakeholders including development partners present at the conference who made presentations also gave ideas and strategies that will help Nigeria to reduce Malaria burden in lass than no time.
The Director added that the action taken by the government the health sector progamme is very commendable and that to drastically push back malaria, political commitment is needed. Moeti talked about the promotion of local manufacturers of health commodities, stating that the WHO will support the Federal government in pushing this directive forward.
Reports have it that the National Malaria Strategic Plan(NMSP) aims to reduce Malaria deaths to less than 50% and also achieve a parachute prevalence of less than 10% by 2025. This will be made possible if we have good backing from the government.
Efayemiode Lekam.
