Environmental Sanitation remains best measure to fight malaria – Minister

Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi has said the best measure to rid our environment of Malaria was to maintain a clean environment.

He noted that the federal government was already in partnerships with local and international organisations to build a consensus that would evolve a sustainable technology to fight the disease in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria has the World’s highest malaria burden with annual reported cases of 51 million and 207,000 deaths representing nearly 30% of the total malaria burden in Africa.

”It is also estimated that nearly 173 million Nigerians are at risk of being infected. This alarming situation brings along with it the economic consequences — absence from work by infected adults, and absence from School on the part of infected School Children are basic and prominent aspects of concern owing to the high rate of man-hour loss arising from this.

“Similarly, it is estimated that Nigerians lose money running into hundreds of Billion Naira wherein if every infected person treats just a bout of Malaria infection with an average of two thousand naira twice every year.”

Several efforts are being made internationally, nationally and locally to combat the Malaria scourge. It’s a global challenge. So we are also doing some kind of collaboration with scientists outside to see that we developed a vaccine that is quite effective in malaria treatment.

“Only recently, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Nigeria End Malaria Council (NEMC) where he mandated it to ensure successful implementation of the council’s programme that should translate into N2 trillion savings from the estimated economic burden of the disease by 2030.

“It remains critical that hierarchically, effective Mosquito control takes the form of exclusion — removal of suitable vector habitat through sound hygiene and sanitation which stops breeding by preventing egg laying; life cycle control — larvicide, to reduce/eliminate egg hatching; and oiling & adulticiding which is used for controlling pupacy and adulthood respectively.

“By nature, mosquito requires filthy, dirty and unkept environment to survive and reproduce undergoing metamorphosis,” and urged Nigerians to keep a clean environment to control the disease.

The press conference was jointly presented by the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi and the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire who maintained that the vaccine for children does not work in isolation but in combination with other measures.

He was represented at the joint press conference by Perpetual Uhomoibhi, National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Federal Ministry of Health.

The Minister noted that the trial countries for the malaria vaccines for children are considered priority countries in the distribution but when the high burden countries are noted Nigeria would be listed to benefit from the children vaccines and that would go round the country.

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