A don at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos, Dr Wellington Oyibo, has said malaria is often misdiagnosed by people in Nigeria.
Oyibo, who spoke at a workshop organised by Malaria No More in Lagos, said no fewer than 300 diseases have similar symptoms like malaria.
Malaria, he said, can only be diagnosed by using rapid diagnostic test (RDT), adding: “Fever is the only way the body reacts when there are external factors in the body. Pneumonia, malaria and gastroenteritis; among other diseases can cause fever but the RDT would show if it is malaria or not.”
Oyibo said chloroquine is not a recommended malaria drug despite being sold in the market, saying: “Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) remained the ideal therapy for malaria treatment.”
He said there was a policy since 2005 that people should not use chloroquine, stressing that it is a malpractice to use it.
Oyibo said the capacity to test for malaria is just growing in Nigeria, adding: “There is communication gap.”
He said commodities for malaria control are expiring where they are kept because people are not using them.
The country, he said, is moving towards getting a vaccine, adding that the RTSS vaccine has gone through the clinical trials and it should be approved soon.
He said the vaccine would bring hope to malaria prevention, especially in protecting. “However, there is still much to be done for it to be desirable,” he said.
The expert charged the Federal Government to provide policy and guidance, adding that public-private partnership (PPP) was very critical to malaria control.
“The state governments should take full responsibility for malaria control. Also, advocacy and communication are necessary for effective control of the disease,” he said.
The health system, Oyibo said, is weak, adding that this impacts on the health status.
He said about N132 billion is lost in the economy because of malaria attacks yearly.
This, he said, is alarming despite the preventable and curable nature of the disease.
“Over 90 per cent of malaria infections in Nigeria are caused by plasmodium falciparum carrying anopheles mosquitoes, which is most dangerous,” he said.
He said malaria can cause continuous abortion in expectant mothers, adding that it may also cause stillbirth.
“Expectant mothers may not have fever because the parasite goes into the placenta to attack the foetus. Sometimes, malaria kills the mother and the baby in uterus,” he said.
The don said malaria figures are coming down but a lot still has to be done because the disease happens differently in different places.
He said Nigeria is still controlling the disease, adding: “We are still reducing the disease burden to a level at which it is no longer a public health problem.”
His words: “At least 80 per cent of targeted population should utilise appropriate preventive measures by 2020. Also, we should be able to expand universal access and increase the use of insecticide treated materials (ITM) and indoor residual spray (IRS) as well as expanding the larviciding and intermittent preventive therapy (IPT) in expectant mothers”.
National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Nnenna Ezeigwe identified lack of fund as a major obstacle to malaria control.
She said 97 per cent of people are at risk of the disease in the country, adding: “Nigeria accounts for a quarter of malaria burden in Africa. Under-five mortality is 201 out of 1000 in 2003; in 2006, it is 157 in 1000 while that of 2013 is 128 in 1000.
“Malaria is responsible for 30 per cent of childhood mortality; 11 per cent of maternal mortality and out-patient attendance. Only 30 per cent of under-5 receives treatment within 24 hours.”
Ezeigwe said 50 per cent of the population has malaria episode yearly, stressing that the disease is still a public health problem in Nigeria.
