By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
Borno State Commissioner of Health and Human Resources, Professor Malam Gana has said that Nigeria still accounts for more than 25% of the global malaria burden and 19% of global malaria deaths.
Prof. Gana added that the number of persons diagnosed with malaria in 2023 stood at 527,305 with 15,036 being severe cases; figure for 2022 stood at 600,141 with 13,492 being severe cases; figure for 2021 stood at 714,904 with 20,774 being severe cases, according to the District Health Information Software (DHIS-2) routine data.
He stated this on Friday during a press conference held at EIC Eyes Hospital Maiduguri to commemorate the 2024 World Malaria Day, with the theme: “Advancing health equity, gender equality and human rights”.
The Commissioner said,” the 2024 world Malaria Day commemoration provides a clarion call for all to commit themselves to advocate and solicit for support for more resources and commodities and inter-sectorial collaboration to fight malaria.”
“I must inform you that malaria is still a public health challenge. According to the World Malaria Report, and these figures show that, there has been a downward trend in cases of Malaria in the past 3 years (2021, 2022 & 2023) in Borno State.
“Borno State Government has also declared “Free Malaria Treatment for All” as from Thursday, 25th April, 2024 at all the Primary Healthcare Facility across the 27 LGAs of the state,” Prof. Gana said.
According to him, the Government of Nigeria through the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and Borno State Government under the able leadership of His Excellency Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, through the Ministry of Health in collaboration with partners have made tremendous impact and achieved remarkable targets in the implementation of various interventions.
“I am pleased to inform you that, the state malaria elimination program has yielded better results as recently seen in the National Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS) -2021 findings.
“Net ownership by household was 70.4%, Net use by Household was 36.7%, use by Children Under 5-years of age was 55.8%, Net use by pregnant women was 56.6%, Pregnant women who received Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPTp) at least once was 78.7%, prevalence of malaria in children under 5 by RDT was 18.6%.
“The state has had 7 rounds of uninterrupted Seasonal Malaria Chemo-prevention (SMC) intervention between 2017 and 2023 through the support of Nigeria Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), World Health Organization (WHO) and Malaria Consortium (MC) where over 2,000,000 children 3 months to 5 years of age were reached every year,” the commissioner said
“We have witnessed an uninterrupted supply of antimalarial commodities, especially the supply of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits, Artemesinin Based Combination Therapy (ACTs) and Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) free-of-Charge to Pregnant women and children under 5 and to newly resettled communities across the the State over the years
“The State Government has finalised the engagement of a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) to provide comprehensive Malaria services free-of- charge across the State on behalf of the State Government.
“Let me use this opportunity to commend the Role Back Malaria (RBM) partners in the state. In particular, I must acknowledge the immense contribution of the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, MSF, INTERSOS, Mentor Initiative, Malaria Consortium (MC) and other Implementing Partners; through your robust support, lives have been saved.
‘”The Borno State Ministry of Health through the State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP) will continue to count on the teamwork, technical and financial support of various implementing partners that have enabled the state to attain its current success on malaria elimination efforts. This tempo needs to be sustained,’ Prof. Gana added.
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