UK injects £89m to fight malaria, other diseases in Nigeria

The United Kingdom (UK) through the Department for International Development (DfID) has invested about £89 million in the fight against malaria and other mosquito-related diseases in the country. Executive Director, Malaria Consortium, Charles Nelson stated this at a seminar on Support to National Malaria Programme (SUNMAP) end of programme in the country.
Nelson told journalists that “in the past 8 years (2008-2016), UK DfID has invested over 89 million pounds to support the malaria programme, in Nigeria since the past eight years.”
SuNMap is being supported by the UK government under DfID, and has projects across 10 states of the federation.
Also, National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr. Nnenna Ezeigwe said present low intake of scientific proven interventions by most Nigerians has been identified as the major factor militating against fast progress in the control of malaria in Nigeria. She explained that the purpose of the programme was to reach the general population, specifically the poorest and most vulnerable with evidence-based interventions that would help reduce mosquito-related diseases and the malaria burden.
Ezeigwe bemoaned the Nigerians are reluctant in adopting the strategies and intervention, which according to her, had greatly hampered the progress in malaria control. She further called on Nigerians to always make sure they sleep on treated insecticidal nets every night to avoid mosquito bite.
“Low uptake of interventions is one of our problems that is militating fast progress in the fight against malaria. Currently, in some states, we have embarked on interpersonal communication strategies in the grassroots where we get communication experts to interact with people within the communities to let them understand the need to take the interventions that have been proven to be working.
“Individuals should embark on environmental management. Individuals should keep their environment clean and clear all bodies of water in the general environment.
They should observe general hygiene and always sleep under the net every night,” she stressed.
Country Director of Malaria Consortium, Dr. Kolawole Maxwell, disclosed that by the end of the project, through SuNMap alone, over 4 million insecticidal nets were procured and distributed in public facilities and an estimated 2.2 million nets were sold through the commercial sector.
“In terms of anti-malarial drugs, 5.6 million doses of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine for prevention of malaria in pregnancy and 1.46 sp/amodiaquine distributed for seasonal malaria chemoprevention were distributed by project end.
“An estimated 2.7 million doses of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and 2.7 million malaria rapid diagnostic tests were procured and distributed and SunMap supported the sales of over five million ACTs through the commercial sector,” Maxwell said.
Commissioner for Health, Ogun State, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye highlighted the importance of deploying other strategies to curtail malaria scourge in the country. Ipaye harped on the involvement of rural communities in the implementation of the national strategy to eliminate the disease through effective monitoring.
The programme is currently being implemented in Lagos, Ogun, Enugu, Niger, Jigawa, Yobe, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Anambra.