From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The outcome of the 2021 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS) and the Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM) strategy and implementation guide conducted by the Federal Ministry of Health and partners revealed that 9 to 10 persons die every hour due to malaria or malaria-related issues.
It added that Children under five years of age remain the most vulnerable group affected by malaria, accounting for 67 per cent of all malaria deaths.
The Report also indicated that malaria remains a major public health challenge in Nigeria, constitutes a huge epidemiologic burden and continue to cripple the economic development of Nigeria, in addition to being the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Nigeria, with young children and pregnant women disproportionately affected.
Minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire who launched the report in Abuja, on Wednesday, stressed the need for collective effort to ensure that further success is recorded in terms of prevalence especially at rural communities.
The Minister said that malaria accounts for 60 per cent of outpatient visits to health facilities, 30 per cent of childhood deaths, 11 per cent of maternal death (4,500 deaths yearly), and 25 per cent of deaths in infants.
He said the result of the survey also showed a slow but steady decline in malaria prevalence at national level from 42 per cent in 2010 (MIS, 2010) to 27 per cent (MIS, 2015), and 23 per cent in 2018 (NDHS, 2018), stressing that significant declines have also been observed at the zonal and state levels.
He said: “We are seeing gains being sustained in getting the population to adopt key preventive measures. The report showed us that 56 per cent of households own at least one Insecticide Treated Net (ITN), while 36 per cent of household members, 41 per cent of children under 5, and 50 per cent of pregnant women sleep under an ITN.”
The Minister, thus encouraged all partners working in the malaria landscape to utilize the Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM) strategy and implementation guide to plan, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a unified and cohesive social behavior change project for malaria control interventions that will, ultimately lead to improvement in the uptake of malaria services by Nigerians.
National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Dr. Perpetua Uhomoibhi, in her presentation, said that COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, increased population and dynamics, as well as inadequate resources are some of the key issues affecting the fight against malaria.
She also lamented about the health seeking behavior of the people which, she said, was unimpressive, stressing new approaches should be adopted to achieve more results particularly at grassroot level.