Making Nigeria malaria-free

To mark the 2021 World Malaria Day, St Racheal’s Pharma held a colloquium in Lagos at the weekend during which experts identified practicable ways Nigeria can achieve a zero malaria status just like polio.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) World Malaria 2020 report shows that Nigeria tops the malaria case chart in Africa at 27 per cent, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12 per cent), Uganda (5 per cent), Mozambique (4 per cent) and Niger (3 per cent). These five countries accounted for about 51 per cent of all cases globally.

The report also identified six significant challenges hindering Nigeria from reaching a zero malaria status such as drug resistance and treatment failure, poverty, insecticide resistance, lack of sensitive field tests that can detect low levels of parasitemia, global warming and climate change as well as sustainable funds.

The situation is serious, but the WHO believes the problem is surmountable, especially because several former malaria-endemic countries,  including El-Salvador, Paraguay, Argentina, Algeria, Mauritius, Lesotho and Seychelles, have eradicated the disease.

One of the stakeholders in the fight against malaria is Lagos-based pharmaceutical firm, St Racheal’s Pharma. It marked the 2021 World Malaria Day with a colloquium.

The firm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Akinjide Adeosun, in his remark titled, ‘Hope For A Zero Malaria Future In Nigeria’, cited the examples of other countries which are now malaria free, as evidence that Nigeria can also eradicate the disease if the identified challenges are pragmatically tackled.

He observed that with a huge population of about 205 million people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of over $400billion, Nigeria has what it takes to surmount 23 per cent of the global malaria death burden.

Adeosun said: “This is at least 30 times greater than the COVID-19 fatality in Nigeria in 2019.”

Noting that eliminating malaria in Nigeria requires collaboration from all stakeholders, Adeosun urged the government and private sector to “do the right thing”.

He added that government should broaden access to micro-insurance, especially to the economically and geographically disadvantaged, as well as develop national malaria database to address paucity of data to drive targeted interventions.

Adeosun said: “I appeal to the sub-national and national governments in Nigeria to allocate 1% of their 2022-2032 budgets to wage war against malaria.

“I believe a long term allocation of resources to fight malaria will indeed result in a healthier population. A healthier people will result in a more productive country and clearly the outcome shall be a prosperous nation.”

Following its theme “Reaching the Zero Malaria Target” he said part of the pharmaceutical company’s plan for eradicating malaria in the country is to raise awareness about the disease’ morbidity and mortality and to espouse strategies in the private and public sector towards the eradication of malaria over the next 10 years.

He said the solutions developed at the event would be communicated; monitored, measured and progresses would be reported during the next edition of World Malaria Day on Monday, April 25, 2022.

Strategies for reaching the zero malaria target

Adeosun revealed that St Racheal’s Pharma has mapped out several programmes to complete the efforts of the global, continental, national and sub national governments to Reaching the Zero Malaria Target

They include: Launch a St.Racheal’s Antimalarial Art Competition amongst secondary school students in Nigeria. The Star Prize is $500 or N250, 000. The firm said, there is also the need to boost the technical capability of a Nigeria school of pharmacy through a local bioequivalence study for St Racheal’s antimalarial medicines.

It commended the Southwest states (Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti) for demonstrating “strong political will to reach zero malaria target with clear strategies and robust programmes which show good signs of success”.

However, it noted that there is still a significant need to drive sustainability through local professionally managed programme management, self-funding and local manufacture.

Also speaking at the colloquium, the wife of the Deputy Governor of Imo State, Dr Bola Njoku, identified governments’ lack of capacity and political will for sustainability approaches as the main obstacle to tackling the country’s malaria burden.

Njoku said: “Unfortunately, Nigeria depends highly on developing partners for her sustainable programmes on malaria prevention and treatment, and seeing it as the only way the country can move forward.

“Most of the drugs, consumables and commodities used in the fight against malaria in Nigeria are imported as none is produced locally.”

Quality Assurance Manager, Vcare Diagnostics Limited, Prince Abiola Adejumobi, said reaching zero malaria index involves effect vector elimination approach by the use of chemical agents such as insecticides.

Oyo State Commissioner for Health Dr Bashir Bello said the state had applied several strategies to ensure total elimination of malaria in the state, which has shown positive results according to statistics.

He said the state flagged off programmes that take care of children directly from the home, with provision being made to give them the necessary care as well as the pregnant women getting all forms of necessary antenatal care, including intermittent treatment of malaria.

ThevDirector of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Ogun State, Dr Festus Soyinka, said the state in its 2021 appropriation bill aimed at improving access and utilisation of vector control intervention to at least 80 per cent of the state’s population by the end of the year.

According to him, the state is addressing the issue of stock out of commodities and drugs for the treatment of malaria in its public health facilities, “which is a challenge limiting the state from achieving positive results in eliminating the disease”.

The Director of Disease Control, Ministry of Health, Lagos State, Dr Rotimi Agbolagorite, said malaria is endemic in the state and poses a major challenge to the state as it impedes human development.

According to him, “malaria is known to be the cause of underdevelopment in a state and one of the leading causes of morbidity in a state.

“The cosmopolitan nature of Lagos, coupled with the people’s behaviour and the abundant distribution of people in the coastal areas, encourage the availability of stagnant water for the breeding of anopheles mosquitoes.”

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Ekiti State, Akinjide Akinleye, said the state government laid emphasis on environmental management, which includes effective refuse disposal and management.

“We also have embarked on covering of all water storage containers, clearing of drainage and gutters, proper dredging of channels, clearing surrounding bushes among others to prevent mosquitoes from breeding,” he added.

Akinleye said if the vectors are prevented, the incidence of malaria would decrease consequently, especially with the monthly environmental sanitation organised and executed to ensure that the people have a clean environment.

“Violators are usually sanctioned according to the provisions of the law,” he said, adding that currently, Ekiti state has recorded a huge success through this active intervention, with about 45 percent reduction in malaria compared to 2019.”