Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that continues to have a devastating impact on the health and livelihood of people around the world. In 2020, there was an estimated 241 million new cases of malaria and 627, 000 malaria-related deaths in 85 countries. More than two thirds of deaths were among children under the age of 5 living in the WHO African region.
World Malaria Day is observed annually on April 25, to bring global attention to the efforts being made to bring an end to malaria, and encourage action to reduce suffering and death from the disease. World Malaria Day 2022 will be marked under the theme “Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives.” The World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling for investments and innovation that bring new vector control approaches, diagnostics, antimalarial medicines and other tools to speed the pace of progress against malaria.
Children under five years of age are the most vulnerable group affected by malaria. Statistics have shown that each year in Nigeria, an average of 300,000 children are killed by malaria. The disease is similarly responsible for 11 percent of all maternal deaths. What is disturbing is that a vast majority of these deaths are linked to highly-preventable causes, such as basic health care, hygiene, homelessness and sanitation practices. Most of these deaths were also fuelled by poverty and a lack of awareness in the general populace.
In view of the foregoing, creating awareness on the need to keep our environment clean can be very helpful. All stakeholders, including government, health practitioners, corporate organisations, and NGOs, can get involved in creating such awareness on malaria prevention and control.
Another method that can help in malaria control is surveillance. This entails tracking of the disease and programmatic responses, and taking action based on the data received. Countries with a high burden of malaria such as Nigeria require effective surveillance at all points on the path to malaria elimination.
Therefore, stronger malaria surveillance systems are urgently needed to enable a timely and effective malaria response in endemic regions, to prevent outbreaks and resurgences, to track progress, and to hold governments and the global malaria community accountable.
Daniel Ighakpe, Lagos
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