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Tag: malaria

  • Mastering malaria

    Mastering malaria

    •Africa must take its destiny into its own hands

    The welcome news that an anti-malaria vaccine could be in operation in Africa as soon as 2015 must be tempered by the fact that it is essentially a non-African initiative, sponsored by foreign funds, and directed by foreign agencies.

    Malaria is the continent’s most ruthless killer, accounting for about 900,000 deaths a year, most of them babies and children. This is far in excess of any other disease, and its crippling effect is widely regarded as a major factor inhibiting the continent’s growth.

    The new vaccine, designated “RLTSS,” is aimed at fighting the virulent falciparum strain of malaria. It is undergoing trials in seven African countries, including Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, and covers about 16,000 children. Previous trials conducted in 2008 have shown the vaccine to be about 53 per cent effective in young children and about 65 per cent effective in infants.

    Most of the research is being conducted by multinational pharmaceutical firms like GlaxoSmithKline and agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO), especially its Global Malaria Programme. It is hoped that RLTSS will be the harbinger of even more effective second-generation vaccines, which will have up to 80 per cent effectiveness.

    The tragedy is that Africa is almost nowhere to be found in all of these laudable initiatives. The continent’s clinicians, clinical epidemiologists and other researchers are involved in the trials, but very few nations appear to have taken up the fight against the disease as their own. Most of them are handicapped by dilapidated infrastructure, poor funding and administrative incompetence. Many have forgotten valuable strategies previously developed to curb the spread of mosquitoes, improve general hygiene and accelerate public enlightenment. The continent’s numerous wars and outbreaks of instability have further worsened the capacity of African governments to deal with the malaria plague, and the global economic downturn has shifted resources away from effective treatment of the disease.

    Nigeria features prominently in this alliance of under-achievers. The country accounts for more malaria deaths than any other nation on earth. About 97 per cent of its total population resides in malaria-prevalent areas. It witnesses about 100 million malaria cases annually; 300,000 of these are fatal. The disease accounts for 11 per cent of maternal mortality.

    African nations can no longer look on as outsiders continue to take the initiative in combating a disease that continues to decimate their citizens. It is not enough to beg for assistance; a true understanding of sovereignty implies that the continent must take deliberate measures to ensure that it assumes a more significant role in fighting malaria to a standstill.

    The first step in achieving this aim must incorporate a return to the fundamentals of public health policy: functioning healthcare facilities, increased sanitation, well-developed early-warning systems, and a vigorous programme of public enlightenment. The sanitary inspector must return to Africa’s streets. Unhealthy practices must be exposed and discouraged. More resources should be devoted to social infrastructure, especially the holy trinity of immunisation, nutrition and education, without which any sustained campaign against malaria will be meaningless.

    Indigenous pharmaceutical firms must be encouraged to carry out research into malaria, with an emphasis on modernising the many traditional remedies which have demonstrated their efficacy in the past. They can be encouraged by government grants and subsidies aimed at reducing the financial risk involved in such undertakings.

    Perhaps most importantly, the attitudes of Africa’s governments have to change. The callous indifference displayed by the continent’s ruling elite to the deaths of thousands of their compatriots annually cannot continue. Countries like Nigeria, where government officials rush abroad at the slightest ailment, should channel their resources into ensuring that their healthcare facilities are better-staffed and equipped.

  • Nigeria to achieve global commitments on HIV/AIDS – Jonathan

    Nigeria to achieve global commitments on HIV/AIDS – Jonathan

    Nigeria’s Comprehensive Response Plan for HIV/AIDS presents a unique opportunity to put her back on track towards achieving global commitments, President Goodluck Jonathan said on Tuesday.

    The President made this statement during the AIDS Watch Africa Champions Breakfast Meeting in Abuja.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the breakfast was on the fifth day of the Abuja +12 Special Summit of the African Union on HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

    According to the President, Nigeria’s commitment in the past decade was to halt and reverse HIV and AIDS in the country.

    He said that through local and international partners, the nation had succeeded in significantly impacting the disease.

    He, however, noted that the overall gaps in access to HIV and AIDS service still remained a great challenge, particularly for Nigeria, which according to a 2012 report has the world’s second highest burden.

    “Of the estimated 3.4 million people living with HIV in the country, only 491,021 HIV positive persons are accessing Antiretroviral Therapy (ART).

    “Furthermore 1.6 million people are eligible for ART, meaning that an estimated 30 per cent of the HIV populace are in need.’’

    Jonathan said the country regarded the statistics as a wake- up call for rededication.

    He said rededication was the reason behind the development of the President’s Comprehensive Response Plan (PCRP) for HIV and AIDS in Nigeria, which was unveiled on Monday.

     

  • ‘Cost of malaria to Nigeria’s GDP is 6%’

    A Professor of Zoology at the University of Ilorin, Uade S. Ugbomoiko, has put the yearly cost of malaria to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at between one and six per cent.

    The economic costs of parasitic diseases are significant, creating an ugly development that has a heavy toll on productivity, Ugbomoiko said.

    Ugbomoiko, who spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, while delivering the university’s 134th inaugural lecture, noted that foreign investment could reduce the GDP by as much as 20 per cent or more by the next decade in some sub-Saharan African countries.

    The lecture was entitled: “That we may lay siege.”

    He said: “In Sub-Saharan Africa, hundreds of millions of people are afflicted with these parasites, and more than a quarter of the affected population has one or more infections occurring simultaneously.

    “The advocated health for all by 2020 in the face of the government complacency and lack of funding, in an environment where the gap between the rich and poor widens daily is likely to be a mirage without concerted efforts to change behavioural activities that cause the bulk of human parasitic diseases.

    “It is high time the government saw the occurrence of ancient parasitic diseases in the present century as a social defect and formulate appropriate political will to address them. To achieve a qualitative and holistic control of these parasites, we must evolve a broad-based strategy that will combine good planning, policy consistency with a strong progressive refinement guidelines supported by strong framework for its implementation.

    According to him, technology and chemotherapic strategies in disease control will ameliorate the growing threats of infectious animals, but are unlikely to provide what is needed to control parasitic diseases in Africa.

    Said he: “Improving the health of the poor is therefore not through technology alone, but by ensuring that the basic needs of all are met through intervention that is emancipatory in action. Therefore, the option of behavioral change that will cost nothing to the government and the concerned individual will successfully complement disease control efforts.”

  • Malaria: the grim reaper

    Malaria: the grim reaper

    MALARIA is caused by a plasmodium parasite which spread to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes called “malaria vectors”. The statistics are staggering. Malaria accounts for 60 percent of all hospital cases. It is responsible for 30 percent of all childhood deaths. 11 percent of maternal deaths in Nigeria also results from it. Malaria has somewhat become a natural component of living in Nigeria. It stays close to being related to the grim reaper; a personification of death, shown as a cloaked man or skeleton holding a scythe. The Health Minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, said last year that Nigeria alone contributes to a quarter of the global malaria cases.

     

    How malaria kills women and children

    For many women, the fear of malaria is the beginning of wisdom. Pregnant women are most susceptible. In pregnant women, the parasite causes anaemia; conditions in which the red blood cells are deficient in hemoglobin, resulting in poor health. This can in turn damage the placenta and reduce the exchange of food and oxygen causing the baby to be starved of nutrients while in the stomach. According to WHO, most deaths in malaria amongst children occur in Africa where a child dies every minute from the pestilence. Children are also prone to it due to poorly developed immune system.

     

    Is malaria intractable?

    With the amount of money and efforts geared towards fighting the scourge, malaria still spread at the speed of light. This has therefore become worrisome to many stake holders as the number of lives lost to the ailment appears quite alarming. Has the parasite developed resistance in Nigeria as many are wont to believe? Dr Adeyemi Amuda of the State Specialist Hospital, Ondo, said many are misled to believe that malaria is intractable because of the endemic nature of the parasite which thrives mostly in tropical countries. “The temperature, rainfall and vegetation make the survival of Anopheles mosquitoes, the host, easy. This is coupled with the habits that give breeding space to the organism such as sites like bushy surroundings and stagnant ponds.”

    Sadly, not all anti-malaria drugs are effective in treating malaria as cases have shown. The local herbs and agbo drinks have also proved unreliable, according to findings. The reason is attributed to mutation, an adaptive change in the structure of a gene. Explaining this, Dr Amuda said antimalarial targets the parasite in a human host and not the mosquito-the transmitting organism. “With time, the malaria parasite adapts to the same antimalarial being used over and over again through a process called mutation. This structural change makes the parasite less susceptible to that antimalarial. This explains why there is malaria resistance to Chloroquine which used to be a very effective antimalarial,” he told The Nation.

    Stake holders in the health sector now recommend the use of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACTS’s) as it is more effective in treating the parasite. According to Dr Godwin Ntadom, the Deputy Director of the Federal Ministry of Health, even though resistance has been recorded in some parts of the world like Thailand and Cambodia, the ACT’s still works well in Nigeria.

    In a country where health care falls short of required standard, many Nigerians would prefer to go for self-medication as the process of conducting tests and diagnosis is considered too expensive. Yet, medical practitioners warn against great consequences arising from complications. Some of these complications include febrile convulsion which occurs mostly in children. Another is cerebral malaria which has to do with loss of consciousness after the attack. Other complications include renal failure, difficulty with breathing and grave cases where victims may bleed to death. It is for this reason and more that patients are advised to visit the hospital, especially for diagnosis since many mistakenly take other forms of illness to be malaria.

    Peter Akinbode, an IT manager, was once a victim to this. He bought anti-malarial drugs at a pharmacy but was forced to go for further consultation when the case was not abating. He was directed to run tests where his case was later confirmed to be typhoid.

     

    Prevention: the best treatment

    The best treatment for malaria is prevention. Health practitioners advocate for a cleaner environment as unsafe surroundings are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Even in cases where insecticide treated nets are distributed, some are unused. Investigation also reveals that many complain of heat and the epileptic nature of power as hindrances to the use of nets. Dr Boubacai Dieng, the health manager of UNICEF, Abuja says in nipping the scourge, prevention should be emphasized as the environment needs to be clean.

  • Omawumi takes a stand against malaria

    Omawumi takes a stand against malaria

    SOULFUL Nigerian singer, Omawumi Megbele recently stormed Ogun State to raise awareness as part of activities to mark this year’s World Malaria Day by Reckitt Benckiser in partnership with Ogun State Ministry of Health.

    The award-winning songstress, who is also Mortein Anti-Malaria campaign spokesperson, led the mothers to take the Mortein pledge which reads: I am a Nigerian mother and I promise to wait no longer to take up the malaria fight. Protecting my child from mosquito bites, I stand firm to protect my own. No stagnant water or dirt in my home. Let’s embrace our countries plight standing as one, One enemy, One fight.

    Fighting malaria, Omawumi told mothers, is everybody’s duty, not just the role of the government. “We want to get a message out. Malaria is a serious problem. It kills more people in Nigeria than many other diseases, but with relatively simple practices like using a quality insecticide, using bed nets and keeping the environment clean, the impact can be reduced. The good news is that malaria is preventable. All that is required is our hard work and contribution to prevent it. We all need to defend Africa and make it malaria-free,” she stressed.

    As part of the campaign, the artiste visited expectant mothers at Ijaiye State Hospital where she presented gifts items to the first baby delivered at the State Hospital in Abeokuta. Mother of the baby, Mrs. Bola Adebayo, was full of thanks to the company for the gesture.

  • Malaria still a ‘disturbing’ health issue

    Malaria still a ‘disturbing’ health issue

    According to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (NOI) Polls, almost seven in 10 Nigerians had malaria, at least once, in the past year. How can Nigeria combat this worrisome health issue? OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA and WALE ADEPOJU report.

    Despite efforts to stop the disease, malaria is still ravaging the land. The three tiers of government appear unable to tame the monster, which has since been caged in some other parts of the world.

    The World Malaria Day was marked on April 16, but the event virtually went unsung in Nigeria. Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the disease is expected to be eradicated by 2015.

    Can Nigeria attain the goal? It is in a bid to do so that the Federal Government adopted programmes such as Roll Back Malaria, free distribution of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) and Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs), Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) with insecticides. Promotion of clean environment and introduction of affordable malaria medicine are a few of the other interventions the three tiers of government have deployed to end the disease.

    Most of these interventions have either been wishy washy in implementation or the governed sabotaged through sheer ignorance.

    For instance, the Federal Goverment provided for the availability of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), which is the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) recommended anti-malaria first line drug, but to get same is a major task because it is not readily available on the counters, despite being classified as over the counter medicines (OTC). And where they are available, they do not go for the official price. In principle, the drugs have been fixed for N270 but in implementation they are sold for N600 and above.

    Mr Seyi Oluwasegun, a businessman, took his two year-old son to a primary health care centre at Ipaja, a Lagos suburb, for treatment. He was asked by the health personnel to take the child to a laboratory for a diagnostic test. He obliged. When he returned he was given a prescription to purchase a malaria drug. He protested and stated that the state government did provide free drugs for children under five years and adults above 65 years, but he was told there was no longer stock of anti-malaria drugs.

    Frustrated, he went to a nearby pharmacy outside the hospital, where he bought the drug for N650.

    He is not alone. Another patient, Pa Joseph Oshaye, a 72-year old retiree, said he had to pay through his nose to treat the ailment when he was diagnosed for the same disease at another government hospital. He too obtained his drugs in a private pharmacy.

    He lamented that in the past, N20 worth of Chloroquine would have been sufficient to treat the disease but it is no longer the drug of choice. So he had to spend N1, 400 to treat himself after the disease had been diagnosed. The first time he took the drug he didn’t feel any relief and he was advised by a community nurse to treat it with another drug. He said he suspected that the first drug, which he bought, might be a fake. This time around he left his environment to look for another pharmacy where he paid N700 for the drug. After about two hours he felt better. He said: “Treating malaria is no longer cheap as the Federal and state governments promised.”

    Investigations revealed that a patient would need about N650 to treat the disease. Some patients said they were asked to go for a test as a form of diagnosis before they can commence treatment. They said the cost of test alone is high let alone that of the drug.

    Yet, Health Minister Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the Federal Government has subsidised the cost of malaria drug because of the peculiarity of the disease.

    Chukwu, who spoke in Lagos, said people should not patronise health facilities who charge above the required amount of N300 for an artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) anti-malaria drug. He said such cases should also be reported to the Federal Ministry of Health for the appropriate action. But who will bell the cat. And if done, would the authority take appropriate sanctions against offenders. The ostrich game is it.

    The reality is that malaria drugs are sold at exorbitant prices because of the disease burden. Malaria is about the most common of all the fevers. According to the opinion poll by a leading opinion polling and research organisation, NOI Polls Limited, 44 per cent of Nigerians visit hospitals when they have malaria, 38 per cent simply buy medicine from pharmacies or ‘chemists’, 13 per cent simply make use of native herbs like neem leaves (dongoyaro), lemon grass leaves or other form of herbal concoctions.

    According to the poll, respondents were asked how many times they had malaria in the last 12 months, to which majority of respondents (66 per cent: 26 per cent +19 per cent + 10 per cent +five per cent +sic per cent) said they have been infected with at least once over the past one year, while 34 per cent of respondents said they have not had malaria in the past 12 months.

    Further analysis by geo-political zones showed that malaria is more prevalent in South than in the North. results showed that majority of the residents in the Northern regions: North-Central (43 per cent), North-East (38 per cent), and North-West 38 per cent have not had malaria pver the past twelve months. While the Sothern Regions:South-south (77 per cent0, south-East (75 per cent) and South-west (64 per cent) have the largest per centage of the respondents who had malaria more than once over the last twelve months.

    This disparity between geo-political zones is perhaps due to the greater presence of rivers, seas, and lakes in the south where mosquitoes are prevalent; while the North is mostly land locked.

    To how people treat malaria when infected, nationwide results showed that majority (44 per cent) of the respondents visit the hospital to see a doctor when they have malaria. This is followed by 38 per cent who simply buy medicine from the pharmacy or chemist. Furthermore, 13 per cent said they make use of native herbs, such as Neems (dogonyaro), lemon grass leaves or other form of herbal concoctions. The Poll concluded that majority of the residents in the Southern regions self-medicate, unlike the Northern regions that go to the hospital.

    Yet the Health Minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu said the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has encouraged member countries to ensure vector control through Integrated Vector Management in addition to implementing large scale larviciding.

    Chukwu, who spoke at the African Union Conference of Health Ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said a ground breaking ceremony for Larviciding Factory was done in Nigeria a couple of months ago in the presence of the President and Vice-President of ECOWAS Commission and the Deputy Prime Minister of Venezuela.

    “The region is also focusing on vector resistance and drug surveillance. Africa must employ Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) with DDT. There is also a need for scale up of the use of rapid Diagnostic Test Kits (RTDs),” he stated.

    Commissioner of Health, Lagos State, Dr Jide Idris said the government has the political will and commitment to ensure wholly free health care delivery for under five and adult from 65 but funding is the problem.

    He said this was why the government is placing emphasis on payment of taxes so that it can serve the people better, especially in the area of health care for the two categories of people in the society.

    He said in Lagos State, only 17 per cent of the 88 per cent of the people it gave the Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs) were using them. This, he said, was according to a recent survey it conducted.

    Dr Idris urged residents not to keep the nets but rather should use them to prevent malaria. Idris, who spoke to reporters on the occasion of World Malaria Day (WMD), said some households have converted the nets to fishing nets, to catch fish while others have been using them for other unacceptable reasons.

    The theme, which was adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the next three years, is-Invest in the future: defeat malaria. Its slogan: Time is now. He said the disease, which is responsible for 60 per cent of out-patients attendance to health facilities was still prevalent in the state because of its coastal nature.

    Idris called for effective diagnosis before treatment, stressing that it is not all fevers that could be regarded as malaria.

    “Lagos has collaborated with its partners to ensure that microscopes and Rapid Diagnostic Test (RTD) kits are provided while Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) anti-malaria drugs are given free for treatment in its facilities,” he said.

    Private organisations are not left out in the fight to end the disease. For instance, Ogun State government and Reckitt Benckiser’s Mortein insecticide brand has called for an all-inclusive strategy to bring down the current malaria prevalence in Nigeria and African at large.

    They lamented that although malaria was preventable; there was need for concerned stakeholders to take proactive steps to stop the current trend of avoidable deaths resulting from the disease, especially among expectant mothers and under five children.

    The Commissioner of Health, Dr Olaokun Soyinka, said because of the strategic placement of Africa as the new hub for the world’s economy, it was imperative to accord malaria eradication priority and every support needed to overcome the alarming prevalence rate.

    Soyinka described the initiative as a demonstration of responsible corporate citizenship which he said underpinned the company’s love and commitment not only to the people of the state, but to Nigeria as a whole.

    He said: ‘‘Complementary efforts of this nature are not only needed but deeply appreciated by the government of Ogun State. This will certainly go a long way in ensuring that our children and mothers are free from the scourge of malaria.’’

    East) Africa, Reckitt Benckiser, Mr Ashok Bashin, said the need to fill the ‘‘deadly gaps’’ in the various malaria eradication programmes informed the intervention initiative being provided by the company.

    “There are lots of activities and momentum to combat malaria in Nigeria, but deadly gaps still exist. More needs to be done to prevent children from being infected and ensure access to quality malaria treatment”, he declared.

    Ashok said: ‘‘empowering families and communities through participation – while improving their knowledge about how to prevent, recognize and treat malaria – is an important part of Reckitt Benckiser’s malaria prevention work.

    ‘’Community workers should try to sensitize the local population about preventing malaria through the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), cleaning their environment on regular basis, avoidance of stagnant water in their surroundings and use of insecticides like Mortein which is safe on both the mother and child.’’

  • One child dies every 60 sec of malaria

    One child dies every 60 sec of malaria

    

    People across the globe are taking part in World Malaria Day on 25 April
    
2013. Malaria affects and kills millions of people worldwide. In Africa,
    
approximately one child will die every minute ranking malaria as one of the
    
top 3 disease killers.
    

    Throughout the world, 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur in pregnant
    
women and children under the age of five. The World Malaria Report 2011
    
reported an estimated 655,000 people died in 2010.
    

    Even when the disease doesn’t kill, it still can wreak havoc on
    
overburdened communities, governing bodies and economies in malaria-endemic
    
countries. Malaria often affects school and work attendance, decreases
    
worker productivity and drains household resources as families struggle to
    
pay for treatments.
    

    In Africa, malaria deaths have been cut by one third in the last 10 years.
    
Malaria was once found on every continent and in almost every country. 35
    
out of the 53 affected countries outside of Africa have reduced malaria
    
cases by 50 percent in the same time period. Investments have created more
    
than 90 countries malaria-free and another 26 nearly achieving a similar
    
status.
    

    Despite the improvements, significant concerns are upon the horizon.
    
Financial support and control initiatives for malaria are now beginning to
    
fade. Sadly, the global economic recession is tightening budgets of
    
individuals, governments and NGOs. Once earmarked malaria dollars are now
    
being spread out to help combat non-communicable, lifestyle-induced
    
conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer.
    

    Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have been referenced by sensational
    
healthcare professionals as ‘diseases for dummies’. However untrue, the
    
skyrocketing rates of these mainly personal choice, lifestyle-induced
    
conditions are affecting the funding to non-lifestyle, communicable
    
diseases such as malaria.
    

    Essentially, high-risk, poverty-stricken pregnant women and children could
    
be suffering from malaria further due to potentially unnecessary healthcare
    
funding being distributed to the middle-to-upper classes for preventable
    
NCDs. The negative health outcomes of poor choices of those with money are
    
starting to cost more than the lack of choices of the world’s poorest.
    

    To complicate the problem, drug-resistant strains of malaria are now
    
surfacing in high-risk populations of the world as well. In 2012,
    
researchers found that the most effective drugs are becoming less effective
    
and over 20 percent of patients have begun to show treatment resistance.
    

    Therefore now is the time for the malaria community to regroup, reenergize
    
and look for new innovative ways to prevent the resurgence of malaria.
    
Further investments and a strong defensive strategy must center on
    
prevention and not just the treatment of malaria.
    

    Prevention provides tools that enable families and employees to protect
    
themselves against malaria and its effects. Such interventions may seem
    
costly at first, but the long-term health and economic benefits far
    
outweighs the cost of treatments.
    

    As a basic guideline for protection against malaria, United Against Malaria
    
recommends having at least two long-lasting insecticide-treated nets in a
    
household. These nets will typically provide two to five years of
    
protection for a family. The level of protection is based on the size of
    
the family, the type of net, the number of washings and the degree of care
    
given.
    

    Insecticides used in indoor residual spraying (IRS) are safe for humans but
    
lethal to mosquitoes that land on walls within the structure. IRS has been
    
shown to significantly decrease mosquito and larvae populations, especially
    
in communities where stagnant water are present, such as those near mines,
    
farms or brick-making operations.
    

    Dr. Cory Couillard is an international healthcare speaker and columnist for
    
numerous newspapers, magazines, websites and publications throughout the
    
world. He works in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s goals
    
of disease prevention and global healthcare education. Views do not
    
necessarily reflect endorsement.
    

    Email: drcorycouillard@gmail.com
    

    Facebook: Dr Cory Couillard
    

    Twitter: DrCoryCouillard
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Nets key to cutting malaria deaths and illness – UNICEF
    
			
    Nets key to cutting malaria deaths and illness – UNICEF
    
			
    Malaria still kills 660,000 people every year, most of them African children. Universal coverage of insecticide-treated bed nets is key in making gains against malaria – one of the largest killers of children in the world in the world, says UNICEF on World Malaria day.
    

    With partners, UNICEF champions and supports governments to undertake the free distribution of insecticide-treated nets – especially long-lasting insecticidal nets. When universal coverage – one net for every two people – is reached this simple, effective barrier can reduce child mortality by up to 20 per cent.
    

    In 2004, there were just 5.6 million bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa. Until recently limited competition among producers meant that they were too expensive to scale up. However, by 2010, bulk buying, joint procurement, better financing and extending manufacturing capacity into Africa meant that this number had increased to 145 million. A sustained, driven focus on high coverage with this very effective anti-malarial intervention contributed greatly to the 1.1 million lives that have been saved and a one-third decline in African malaria mortality rates that have been recorded since 2000. 
    

    “It is unacceptable that every day more than 1,500 children still die from a preventable and curable disease,” said Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF’s Director of Programmes. “We must distribute insecticide-treated nets to all who need them, provide timely testing for children and appropriate medicine when they are infected.”
    

    A three-day treatment will cure malaria infections, especially if an episode is diagnosed early enough and treated appropriately – in particular with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). But many children, especially in Africa, still die from malaria as they do not sleep under insecticide-treated bed nets and are unable to access life-saving treatment within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms.
    

    UNICEF supports national efforts to train and provide community health workers with simple tools such as malaria rapid diagnostic tests so that children receive medicine quickly when needed. However, in Africa the proportion of treated children who receive a first-line treatment such as an ACT is less than 30 percent in most countries.
    

    UNICEF, with governments, donors and other partners, also looks for innovative ways to reach the most vulnerable and hardest to reach children in pursuit of universal coverage. For example, in addition to free net distributions during mass campaigns in the poorest and most remote areas, nets are also provided to children during routine immunizations and to pregnant women during ante-natal check-ups. UNICEF is also stepping up its efforts on integrated community case management, which brings a package of life-saving interventions closer to children, families and homes.
    

    It is estimated that enough nets were delivered over the last decade to cover 80 per cent of requirements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many nets however are reaching the end of their useful life and must be replaced. Countries that had already reduced their malaria burdens by up to 50 per cent can quickly detect increased cases and deaths due to malaria if old, worn-out nets are not replaced.
    

    From 2000 to 2010, the proportion of children sleeping under an insecticide-treated net in sub-Saharan Africa grew from less than 5 per cent to over a third. But global procurement of long-lasting lasting insecticidal nets has dropped by 52 per cent against an annual target requirement of 150 million. Such a slowdown risks gravely undermining the gains to date.
    

    “We have made considerable progress in this fight, but cannot take our eyes off the goal of reducing malaria cases and deaths to zero. We must make sure that countries have the funding they need for malaria control and use it to protect their children and expectant mothers,” Mr. Alipui added.
    

    Fighting malaria not only saves the lives of children, but also yields many other health and economic benefits for affected communities. For example, reducing malaria improves the health of pregnant mothers and therefore their newborn babies, reduces school and work absenteeism. Eliminating malaria reduces the burden on over-stretched health centres. It is estimated there is a 40-fold return for every US$1 spent controlling malaria in Africa.
    

    There have been impressive gains and successes built on strong partnerships and the generous contributions of many donors – but these gains can be quickly lost if sustained focus and investments are not maintained.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    ‘For us in Nigeria, whatever happens to us is malaria’
    
			
    ‘For us in Nigeria, whatever happens to us is malaria’
    
			
    As someone involved in heart diseases-related matters through the Kanu Heart Foundation (KHF), how would you describe heart problems in Nigeria?
    

    The major problem we have in Nigeria is that a lot of people don’t know the state of their hearts. They don’t know the symptoms, what to eat or not to eat. They don’t know what they have to do when they start feeling certain ways. For us here in Nigeria, whatever happens to a person is malaria or typhoid. And that is what our foundation is trying to correct. We have been trying to let people know the kind of symptoms to watch out for and what they should do when they experience such. We have been telling them that if they have certain symptoms, they should go for check-up. We are also helping people to do the screening so that Nigeria may have some level of documentation.
    

    What basic symptoms have you discovered more during your screening?
    

    I am not a medical doctor (laughs)… But, the major symptom people have is a headache they cannot explain. Irregular beat of the heart is another common symptom, fatigue and sweating. It all depends on the kind of heart problems they have. However, instead of just concluding that maybe the problems you’re having is malaria, the best thing is to go for check-up. People should stop going to chemists or pharmaceutical stores to just purchase malaria or typhoid drugs.
    

    Now, what are the challenges of heart treatment in Nigeria?
    

    That is what we have been preaching and asking the government to look into it so that we can have good and standard equipment in Nigeria. Of course, they are very expensive but we are a big country, we can afford standard and up-to-date equipment. And that is why our foundation is trying to build a heart hospital to make sure that we have those things that our leaders go abroad to spend millions of naira to look for. When we did the launching in Abuja, we gave the assurance that people would not have to be going abroad again for their heart care needs. Whatever happens to us here, the first thing we think of is to go abroad. Whereas, it is not everybody that can afford to go abroad.
    

    Now, how much of support do you offer those who do not have the money to go abroad for their heart care needs?
    

    Well, it is our work to fund people who have needs at the foundation. We fund some fully and others in part depending on what we have at the time they come to us. The situation is seriously larger than we can imagine or toy with.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Nigeria has high malaria burden
    
			
    A General Practitioner, Dr Abiodun Olanrewaju has said no fewer than three million people die from malaria yearly worldwide.
    

    According to him, about 50 per cent of the figure is from Nigerian.
    

    Nigeria, he said, has a high malaria burden, stressing that many people are dying from the preventable disease.
    

    Olanrewaju, who spoke with The Nation in Lagos, said despite the country’s efforts to curtail the scourge through massive distribution of long lasting insecticide-treated nets, scaling up in the use of indoor residual spraying (IRS) and  massive distribution of anti-malaria medicines and commodities; and  capacity building for health workers, the country is still very prone to the disease.
    

    He said everybody is living with characteristics that can cause malaria.
    

    “Malaria is a major cause of maternal and newborn mortality across the world, especially in Africa and more specifically in Nigeria. Every one must ensure they prevent malaria by having a very clean environment and use mosquito nets,” he added.
    

    Advising Nigerians, he said, they should seek proper medical treatment when ever they notice the symptoms of malaria. This would help prevent death from the disease, he said.
    

    “Pregnant women must prevent malaria because it is very harmful to them and their babies. There are very simple interventions that have been identified by World Health Organisation (WHO) and other global bodies for controlling malaria in pregnancy, but the problem is that very low percentage of expectant mothers access such interventions,” he said.
    

    “All expectant mothers should take an anti-malaria drug at least twice in pregnancy, whether she has the symptoms of malaria or not, because there are malaria parasites in the blood which can cause anaemia, can damage the placenta and reduce the exchange of food and oxygen between the mother and baby so that the baby is starved while in the stomach.’’