Bukola Afeni
The Federal Government said Malaria still remains one of the most devastating illness in Nigeria and accounts for 27%of global malaria cases, and 32% of global malaria deaths.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire made the disclosure at the Ministerial Press Briefing to Mark the World Malaria Day celebration.
The Minister of Health was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mamman Mamuda.
According to him, it is pertinent to highlight the fact that despite efforts by the government of Nigeria, It is estimated that approximately 55 million cases of malaria and nearly 90,000 malaria-related deaths occur each year in Nigeria.
“Malaria still remain one of the most devastating illness in the country that is contributing to the death of so many pregnant women, children, and under 5.
The Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with its partners are trying to sensitize to the world about the scourge of malaria, and inform the public about making Nigeria free of malaria”, he said.
He further urged all stakeholders to work with the government in ending malaria.
that Nigeria is among the phase 4 to get the vaccines and also that very soon Nigeria will start producing Thier own vaccines.
” We have the Nigeria institute of pharmaceutical research, we have the Nigeria institute of medical research and all this agencies under the federal ministry of health are in one way or the other are involved in conducting research to fight malaria and I can assure you that in the next few years we are going to have a made in Nigeria vaccine that will be acceptable all over the world, because it bites us harder, so it is time for us to actually start doing something and then export it to the world and it’s all going to be foreign exchange for Nigeria not just depending on an imported medicines or drugs but we also need that to export it to the world in other to fight against the Malaria scourge”, he said.
The Director of Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr MO Alex Okoh, noted that the recent World Malaria report calls for more renewed efforts from all stakeholders in the health sector.
He called on the private sector to complement what government and donor agencies are doing to increase access to malaria interventions by all Nigerians.
He said the theme of this year’s World Malaria Day “Time to deliver Zero Malaria, invest, innovate, implement,” and the slogan adopted for Nigeria by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partners ” Act Now” is quite strategic.
“The theme reflects government continuous investment towards the utilisation of available tools and interventions in the fight against malaria.We need to implement services that gives access to the underserved population.
” The slogan” Act now ” on the other hand is a call to everyone to play their role towards malaria elimination over the years. We have seen some encouraging sign of progress in some malaria interventions. We will continue to count on your support as we work seriously towards the elimination of malaria from our dear country”, Okoh noted.
