The Chief of Staff to Borno State Governor and Commissioner of Health, Professor Isa Marte, speaking to the press during the commemoration of The 2021 World Malaria Day (WMD) in Maiduguri,
By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri-
The Chief of Staff to Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, Professor Isa Marte, who is also the Commissioner of Health in the state, has said that malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria.
He argued that the 2020 World Malaria Report (WMR) has shown that Nigeria has continued to account for 25% of the estimated global malaria burden with mortality associated with malaria standing at over 80,000.
Professor Marte who stated this on Sunday while commemorating the 2021 World Malaria Day (WMD) in Maiduguri, explained that the day is being commemorated every year on April 25th to create awareness about the disease and the devastating impact it has on the lives of more than 3 billion people around the World.
While noting that this year’s celebration, like that of last year, came at the time when the effects and burden of the Coronavirus (COVID – 19) pandemic is still very much around the World.
“This celebration gives us the opportunity to highlight the importance of maintaining robust health systems and continuing delivery of essential health services in times of crisis”.
“The theme of this years’ commemoration is “Zero Malaria, draw the line againstalaria”, while the slogan is “Stand up – take Action”. The theme voices out our commitment to the achievement of a malaria-free Nigeria while the slogan tells us that we can all take action and celebrate the successes attained in malaria control over the past years”, Professor Marte said.
He revealed that the Borno State Government was finalizing plans for a 10 year Scale up of all malaria interventions across the State through a soft credit support from the World Bank.
The Health Commissioner, however called on all stakeholders to commit themselves to advocate and solicit for more supports, resources and inter-sectorial collaborations to fight malaria.
“In Borno State, the confirmed cases of malaria in 2020 stood at 359,366 with 370 death, figure for 2019 was 330,587 with 240 death, 2018 was 237,971 with 110 and 2017 was 143,978 with 231 death (-DHIS2 routine data)”.
“These figures show that, although there has been upward trend of cases from 2017 to 2020, its likely due to improvement in reporting system and training on HMIS version 2019 data tools to M&E officers at all levels across the State in recent years”.
“However, a downward trend in death can also be observed which could be attributed to improvement in early diagnosis and prompt treatment of Malaria cases across the State,” Isa Marte said.
According to him, the Government of Nigeria through the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and Borno State Government through the Ministry of Health in collaboration with partners have made tremendous impact and achieved remarkable targets in the implementation of various interventions.
He said: “The state malaria elimination program has yielded better results as recently seen in the NDHS 2018 findings, net ownership by household was 70.4%”.
“Net used stood ar 49.8%, while net used by pregnant women was 55.8%, pregnant women who received IPTp at least once was 67.2%, prevalence by RDT was 16.2%”.
“The state has had 4 rounds of uninterrupted Seasonal Malaria Chemo- prevention (SMC) intervention between 2017 and 2020 through the support of NMEP, GF, NHF and WHO where over 2,000,000 children 3month to 5 years of age were reached every year”.
“We have wittnessed an uninterrupted supply of antimalarial commodities, especially the supply of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLTN) given free to pregnant women during ANC, chidlren under 5 during immunization session and to newly resettled communities across the state via the Saving One Million lives programme since 2017”, he revealed.
Professor Marte also commended the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partners in the state while acknowledging the immense contribution of the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, MSF, INTERSOS, Mentor Initiative and other implementing partners, through their robust supports in saving lives.
According to him, Borno State Ministry of Health through the SMEP would continue to count on the teamwork, technical, financial and media supports of various implementing partners that have enabled the state to attain its current success on malaria elimination efforts, while promising to sustain partnership.