The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), says, over 17 million Insecticide Treated Nets, ITNs have been distributed in six states of the federation.
The National Coordinator of the programme, Dr Bala Muhammed made the disclosure at the 2nd Bia-Annual media chat in Abuja.
He also said that, “for Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) a preventive measure targeting children between 3 and 59 months of age within the Sahel region is being planned.”
The Coordinator noted that the 9 States being targeted were: Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
Dr. Mohammed explained that “almost 13 million eligible children were reached. With respect to malaria case management available records from the district health information system (DHIS) showed a monthly average of 2,241,653 fever cases that reported at the health facilities nationally, of which 1,988,254 (88%) were tested.”
According to him, of the tested cases, 1,468,110 cases are positive and 1,447,233 (99%) of these were treated with anti-malarials.
“Correspondingly, in 2019 the records indicated a monthly national average of 2,337,794 fever cases that reported at the health facilities of which 2,117,783
(91%) were tested, and of the 1,645,770 that were positive 1,543,789 (94%) were treated
with anti-malarials, which represented a slightly higher number of fever and malaria cases seen in 2019 compared to 2020. These figures and additional information that will be provided during this media chat therefore indicate that while we may not have attained our goals we have sustained interventions at very significant levels given the disruptions from the pandemic. These could not have been possible if not, among other things, for the support and commitment of the Roll-Back Malaria (RBM) partnership in Nigeria, the political and financial support by the governments at various levels, the awareness sustained by efforts of the media together with other channels, and the Nigerian populace that chose deliberately to prioritize their health especially when it comes to tackling malaria,” Mr Mohammed stated.
He also said that the NMEP is comfronted with some challenges.
“Abiding by preventive guidelines motorists decreased number of passengers and increased the transport fares further alienating some who could not afford the charges. Health workers required
additional resources to protect themselves from Covid-19, and where these were not adequate they had to limit access to patients especially at the height of the pandemic. The lock-down, while it lasted, further compounded access to interventions. Supplies of commodities suffered severe disruptions with several health facilities experiencing stock-outs for relatively long times,” he explained.
In a paper presentation Title “Delivering malaria intervention in the context of Covi-19: How NMEP has Faired”, the Technical Director, National Malaria Elimination Programme, NMEP, Professor Olugbenga Makuolu, said that Nigeria accounts for 25% Global Malaria burden, with 19% Global death.
The Technical Director also said that, Nigeria recorded about 53 million annual malaria cases, with annual death of 81, 640. With also 23% of the cases been children from 6-59 months old.
He stressed that NMEP would continue to increase community service provider especially in the IDP camps.
“There is risk of 2-3 fold increase in mortality if there is disruption in current intervention especially as a result of Covid-19 which is posing as threat to global treatment of malaria,” Professor Mukuolu said.
The 2nd NMEP biannual media chat had as its theme “Delivering Malaria Intervention in the Context of COVID-19: How MWEP has fared.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
