The war against malaria has received additional boost as ministers of health from African countries with the highest burden of malaria have committed to accelerate action to end deaths from the disease. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the ministers pledged to substantially and equitably address the threat of malaria in the African region, which account for 95 per cent of malaria deaths globally.
This was disclosed during this year’s World Malaria Day, marked annually on April 25. Expectedly, the Yaounde Declaration will accelerate malaria mortality reductions in their respective countries. This year’s World Malaria Day theme, “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world” is very apt.
Globally, there were an estimated 249million malaria cases and 608,000 malaria deaths in 85 countries in 2022. The WHO African Region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2022, the region was home to 94 per cent of malaria cases (233 million) and 95 per cent (580,000) of malaria deaths. Children under 5 accounted for about 80 per cent of all malaria deaths in the region.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is among 11 countries in Africa that carry approximately 70 per cent of the global burden of malaria. The rest are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. “Progress against malaria has stalled in these high-burden African countries since 2017 due to factors including humanitarian crises, low access to and insufficient quality of health services, climate change, gender-related barriers, biological threats such as insecticide and drug resistance and global economic crises,” WHO stated.
Malaria is endemic in Nigeria. It is transmitted throughout the country with 97 per cent of the population at risk of malaria. The duration of the transmission season ranges from year-round transmission in the south to three months or less in the north. Nigeria had about 67 million malaria cases in 2022. Nigeria also accounted for 27 per cent of the global malaria burden in 2022, 31 per cent of global deaths and 38 per cent of global deaths in children aged under five years.
In these countries, fragile health systems and critical gaps in data and surveillance have compounded the challenge. The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus observed that the COVID-19 pandemic and long-standing threats like drug and insecticide resistance pushed us further off-track, with critical gaps in funding and access to tools to prevent, diagnose and treat malaria. With political leadership, country ownership and the commitment of a broad coalition of partners, we can change this story for families and communities across Africa.”
In a bid to help accelerate efforts to reduce the malaria burden, WHO and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria launched the “High burden to high impact” approach in 2018, targeted effort to accelerate progress in countries hardest hit by malaria. According to experts, malaria is a life-threatening disease spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes. It is mostly found in tropical countries. However, the good news is that malaria is preventable and curable.
The mild symptoms of the disease are fever, chills and headache while severe symptoms include fatigue, confusion, seizures, and difficulty breathing. Malaria can be prevented with insecticide-treated nets, mosquito repellents, coils and vector control. Good enough, there are many drugs to treat malaria.
But the rising cost of malaria drugs is a threat to accelerating the fight against malaria in Nigeria. Many patients in Nigeria had decried the 23 per cent rise in the cost of anti-malarial medications between November 23 and April 2024. The high cost of malaria drugs will hamper their accessibility. Instructively, the United States government has promised to assist Nigeria put effective malaria services. The US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) has helped to save over 10.6 million lives and prevented 1.7 billion malaria infections globally since 2000.
Since Nigeria is one of the countries with high cases of malaria cases, the federal government should lead in accelerating the fight against malaria in the country by ensuring that those with the disease have access to malaria drugs. There is need to enlighten the people about the disease, the preventive measures, causative factors and access to treatment. The state and local governments should be part of the crusade to accelerate the war against malaria.