The Afrrica Malaria Day Celebration

As is the custom yearly, Nigeria joined other African countries to mark the Africa malaria day. April 25^th is set aside yearly to draw the attention of the world to a life threatening disease, malaria, claiming the lives of innocent African children yearly. Since the year 2ooo when African leaders made a commitment to halve the burden of malaria by 2010, the alarming statistics on morbidity and mortality of malaria in endemic countries remain unacceptably high.

State of the Pandemic
At least 300 million acute cases of malaria occur worldwide each year, resulting in more than one million deaths annually -- more than 80% of which are estimated to occur in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly among children under five years old. Recent estimates of the global burden of malaria are even higher, with one study estimating that 515 million cases of clinical malaria occurred in 2002. Overall, malaria accounts for 10% of Africa's disease burden, and it is estimated that malaria costs the continent more than $12 billion annually. Although Africa is hardest hit, it is estimated that more than one-third of clinical malaria cases occur in Asia and 3% occur in the Americas. The estimated cost to effectively control malaria in the 82 countries with the highest burden is about $3.2 billion annually.

Young children and pregnant women are at the highest risk of malaria infection and mortality. Many children experience initial malaria infection during their first two years of life, when they have not yet developed sufficient immunity, making these early years particularly dangerous. Malaria accounted for one in 10 deaths among children in developing countries in 2002. Pregnancy causes women to have reduced immunity to malaria, making them more susceptible to malaria infection and increasing their risk of illness, severe anemia and death. Approximately 60% of all cases of malaria occur among the poorest 20% of the world's population.

Malaria, a disease cause by protozoa and transmitted by female anopheles mosquitoe is associated with complications that spares no body system apart from common symptoms such as fever, joint pains, loss of appetite, vomiting, headache etc. Even the unborn child is prematurely welcomed by the disease. Malaria in pregnancy is a known cause of abortion, low birth weight, prematurity, and even intra uterine foetal death. The unfortunate thing to the resource poor countries is the resistance the malaria parasite has developed to chloroquine, a drug that is readily available and affordable. The current drug of choice for the treatment of simple malaria is artemesinin base combination therapy (ACTs) which are beyond the reach of the common man. Professor Lambo, the Nigerian minister of Health, was recently reported to have said that “the 2.5 million doses of Coartem (Artemether + Lumefantrine) brand of ACTs procured by Federal government as first line treatment for malaria have been distributed to 18 states in the country.

Lambo who noted that the drugs are to be given free of charge to under-five children, said week in Abuja during the official launch of the new malaria treatment policy at the 6th Africa Malaria Day, that the batch was the first consignment of the 16 million doses of ACTS ordered through the Global Fund. Other batches of the drug are being expected for distribution to other states and as backup (for) other efforts targeted at ensuring accessibility.” This is good news if the drugs will get to the target population. The Government and other important stake holders have a duty to strictly monitore the successful implementation of this laudable Programme. We must appreciate the fact that siphoning these drugs presupposes sentencing thousands of innocent children to death. At this juncture, this column will like to call on other tiers of Government to follow suit and should be extended to pregnant women.

The hall mark of malaria control should be targeted towards prevention. The African governments in partnership with the international community have been making effort to reduce the burden of this disease without much progress until the conception of Roll Back Malaria (RBM) in 1998. RBM which is a partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is aimed at halving the burden of malaria by 2010. The Programme identified the following core technical strategies for the sustainable control of malaria:

n increased use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and other locally appropriate means of vector control;

n Improved prevention and treatment of malaria in pregnant women in highly endemic areas.

The recent mass distribution of ITNs in Niger Republic by the international community is commendable and should be extended to other malaria endemic countries in the region.

The world has witnessed six Africa malaria day celebrations aside uncountable seminars and workshops which are yet to reverse the trend of the disease in the continent. The above out lined control measures are achievable if our words will translate into genuine action. The international community can only facilitate malaria control in Africa but the onus lies on the regional leaders to safe the lives of almost I million children dying of this preventable disease yearly. The Asian leaders have demonstrated much more commitment resulting in decrease morbidity and mortality cause by malaria. If we judiciously utilize our meager resources with corruption aside, Nigeria and other sister African nation can control malaria. At the individual and community level, we should keep our environment clean so as not to provide breeding ground for mosquitoes. Children should be taken to the hospital for proper treatment when need be instead of resorting to patent medicine store. The African community must assume greater responsibility for its own problem. The international community should accept the fact that malaria still claim more lives in Africa than HIV/AIDS and thus deserve equal or even more attention. We hope that come April 25^th 2007, when we shall be celebrating the 7^th Africa malaria day, the continent and not the disease, shall be on the winning side.