Twenty-three million Nigerian children were provided with seasonal malaria chemo prevention in order to tackle the situation of malaria in children in the nation.
President Muhammadu Buhari revealed this in Kigali during the Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). The summit is part of activities at the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in the Rwandan capital.
Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, who represented President Buhari and gave a speech on his behalf, stated, “I’m happy to say my nation has recorded gains in decreasing the burden of malaria and NTDs and preventing millions of malaria infections and deaths as can be witnessed in the 2021 World Malaria Report.
Despite of Covid-19 induced restrictions, Nigeria spread over a 17million long-lasting Insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) for vector control.
The LLIN controls not only malaria but also NTDs transferred by mosquito vectors.
“To safeguard against malaria in our seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Strategy, we climbed up from nine states to 21 beneficiary states in 2021, to reach over 23 million children,” he further said.
The Nigerian leader asked Commonwealth leaders to stay determined to get rid of the disease while ensuring the best efforts by his government to muster domestic resources in the battle against NTDs and malaria.
He disclosed that over 300 million dollars had been funded by the World Bank and from the Islamic Development Bank to cover necessary malaria programmes and also support Primary healthcare.
Estimates regarding individuals in the WHO-Africa area getting malaria are still in hundreds of millions while deaths are also in hundreds, the highest toll being on pregnant women and under-five children.
About NTDs, Africa takes over half of the global burden, estimated at more than one billion in 149 countries.
Pharmaceutical companies also donated 18 billion tablets to prevent and treat NTDs.
