By Evaritus Nwaiwu
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver”- Mahatma Gandhi
The wealth of every nation is measured by the health of her citizenry, so to be wealthy, means your citizens must be healthy.
In Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world where the incidence of malaria and its debilitating effects occur, it has been a long battle waging war against the scourge of malaria. According to WHO, “every year there are more than 200 million new cases of malaria.” Over the decades, millions of lives have been lost, no thanks to malaria; several billions of dollars spent in treating the illness, manhours lost due to sickness occasioned by malaria, including physical and emotional trauma as well as temporal separation caused by malaria. In order to at least reduce these consequences to the barest minimum, the WHO in 2007, established World Malaria Day. This day seeks to put malaria issues at the front burner, stimulate political will of various governments, encourage collaborative efforts by organizations, own the fight by communities, mobilize fund as well as share information on successes, new and better ways of control, prevention and management of the menace by countries.
Today as in previous years, The Sun Newspapers and her partners align strongly with the objectives of this year’s event.
We thank our partners, Geneith Pharmaceuticals Nigeria Ltd, Greenlife Nigeria Ltd, and Mark Pharmaceuticals Ltd for always being there, making sure that Nigerians have access to quality, affordable anti-malarials all the time.