NIGERIA continues to account for a significant percentage of global malaria deaths, with the latest World Malaria Report indicating that the country is responsible for 31% of all such deaths worldwide.
Despite efforts to prevent, detect, and treat the disease, many Nigerians are still not receiving the necessary services.
This problem is compounded by numerous challenges, including insufficient funding, inadequate health infrastructure, limited access to healthcare, and declining effectiveness of malaria-fighting tools.
To address these issues, the Executive Director of the Africa Youth Growth Foundation, Arome Salifu, on Tuesday, announced that the organization is establishing a more robust malaria programme in Katsina, Kogi, and Niger States.
These programmes will cover over 2,000 communities and aim to reach approximately one million individuals, including pregnant women and children.
The foundation’s programs will provide essential services such as mosquito nets, insecticide spraying, and diagnostic testing, as well as training healthcare workers to improve the quality of care, amongst others.
Speaking about the initiative, Mr Salifu said, “Through these interventions, AYGF is tackling technical challenges facing malaria implementation, especially the barriers people encounter in accessing quality health services.”
He added, “By bringing malaria commodities closer to where people live and work through primary health care centres in those communities, the cost of care is reduced, and equity is enhanced.”
According to him, there is hope that new interventions, such as the R21 vaccine recently approved by the Federal Government, will help to make malaria a thing of the past.
The vaccine has shown promising results in clinical trials and could be a game-changer in the fight against the disease.
However, it will be important to ensure that these interventions are accessible and affordable to those who need them the most.
The theme of this year’s World Malaria Day is ‘Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement’
“With continued investment in malaria prevention and treatment, it is possible to make significant progress in the fight against this deadly disease,” Salifu added.
Meanwhile, the Africa Youth Growth Foundation’s efforts have been hailed by health experts and community leaders.
One community leader, Alhaji Usman Abdullahi, said, “We are grateful for the efforts to address malaria in our community. This disease has taken too many lives, and we need all the help we can get to combat it.”