MALARIA is a disease transmitted by mosquitoes of the Anopheles species, which feed on humans. It is a life-threatening disease primarily found in tropical countries like Nigeria. The good news is that malaria is both preventable and curable. However, a lack of prompt diagnosis and effective treatment, makes a seemingly uncomplicated case fatal. A child under five dies of malaria nearly every minute. 247 million malaria cases were recorded globally in 2021 leading to a total of 619,000 deaths, wherein 77 percent of these deaths were children under five years of age (UNICEF, 2021).
Malaria is affected greatly by environmental or climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and altitude, which affect the survival and longevity of the vector mosquito and the presence of water bodies which are its breeding sites. Several non-climatic factors, such as the differences between human hosts, urbanization, human migration, and development projects, can also contribute to the malaria transmission pattern.
Several strategies are being employed to eradicate malaria including drug-based control strategies and vector-based control strategies. Since mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, mosquito control requires effective water management. Thus, urban planning becomes relevant in vector-based control strategies.
In a bid to deliver “zero malaria”, efforts should therefore be intensified towards larval control through environmental management. Such efforts should include: properly constructed and well-maintained drainage channels; improved water storage or provision of reliable piped water to prevent people storing water in containers; improved sanitation and waste management; improved housing with screens; urban agriculture without surface water pooling; filling of swamp areas and other stagnant water sources, improving the design of pit latrines, designing mosquito-proof culverts and soakage pits and other construction activities that eliminate potential breeding sites. These strategies imply that mosquito control is actually rooted in improvement in the built environment especially in those infrastructure that any modern settlement needs. Regulations are therefore required to guide construction and land-use changes by government, private sector and individuals so that they could contribute to “building out” malaria.
The aforementioned strategies should be complimented with penetrative social and behavioural change messages that could increase public awareness of malaria and public participation in the responses to deliver zero malaria globally. Again, messages targeting industry and corporations to ensure their engagement and support for malaria control and eradication should be intensified.
- Atebije is the President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners.
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