Nigeria loses N420b to malaria yearly

Nigeria spends over N42 billion on malaria treatment annually and over 77 per cent of malaria patients indulge in self-medication.

Also, Nigeria contributes 25 per cent of the total malaria burden globally and in every 30 seconds, a child dies of malaria in the country. The worst affected in the malaria burden are pregnant women and children under five years.

The National Coordinator of the National Malaria Control Programme, Nnenna Ezekwe, disclosed this at a campaign against malaria self- medication, in Abuja, on Friday.

Concerned by this development, non- governmental organisation, Support to Nigeria Malaria Programme (SuNMaP), has launched a campaign against malaria self-medication.

The campaign was tagged “Don’t over sabi with malaria: Test before you treat.”

Represented by Head of Programme Management in her office, Audu Bala, Ezekwe noted: “Apart from deaths caused by malaria, we also have burden issues on the economy. In fact, on the average, about N420 billion is being lost on one thing or the other due to malaria annually, for which this fund would have been very useful.

“Nigeria contributes about 25 per cent of malaria burden in the world, which is very sad. You also know that in every 30 seconds, a child dies of malaria and those worst affected are children under five and pregnant mothers.

So, we can’t sit and watch this very vital part of our human resource wasted because of a disease that is preventable.”

He added: “We did behavioural change and communication and through all these measures, between 2000 and 2010, we were able to reduce malaria burden in the country by 50 per cent and now, through some of the surveys we have done, we have seen that the prevalence rate of malaria has reduced to almost about 42 per cent and this is tremendous achievement for the government.”

The Programme Director of SunMaP, Folake Olayinka, said the campaign was aimed at reducing the economic burden of malaria by 20 per cent.

According to her: “The research that went into developing this campaign showed that about 77 per cent of Nigerians self-medicate. They just treat malaria without testing prior to treatment. We aim to reduce it substantially by creating awareness by giving people the right information about testing.

source:dailyindependent