Over 90, 000 malaria or malaria related deaths are recorded in Nigeria every year, according to the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP).

Nigeria accounts for about a quarter of global burden of malaria, with nine to 10 persons dying of malaria or malaria related causes every hour.

NMEP Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM) Officer, Eunice Subair, who disclosed this at the quarterly meeting of the Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN), yesterday in Abuja, noted that progress has, however, been made in the control of malaria, with prevalence going down from 42 per cent in 2010 to 27 per cent in 2015, and 23 per cent in 2018 (MIS 2010 and NDHS 2018).

She said malaria is still of significant burden in Nigeria, and that the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), is ongoing in all eligible states.

She urged the media to do help in achieving malaria elimination goal by making the disease an important agenda for public discourse, including malaria issues in their programmes and educating the public on importance of sleeping inside ITNs every night to protect themselves against mosquito bites, among others.

Subair stressed the need for pregnant women to visit clinics early in pregnancy for antenatal care and admonished Nigerians to always go to the hospital whenever they suspect malaria.

The Coordinator of the Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN), Ayo Ipinmoye, said more than three billion people, about half of the world’s population are at risk of malaria, which is treatable and preventable.

He noted that the recently upgraded customised management information system would save the Federal Government about N293, 700, 000 in logistics cost out of the N890m budgeted for the implementation of malaria Intervention programme.

He explained that the deployment of technology in data collection would help check malaria commodities, such as ACT and insecticide treated net.

He said with the latest upgrade of ACOMIS, data could be collected from the field on a real time basis across all implementing states.

(The Guardian)

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