Malaria: Some people collect mosquito treated nets and use them as fishing nets — Expert

To mark this year’s World Malaria Day held under the theme: ‘Zero Malaria Starts With Me’, a coalition of partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO), Malaria Society of Nigeria, African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), Malaria No More and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, called on governments to commit to tracking progress in cutting the number of malaria cases and deaths from the disease.

At last year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, all 53 heads of state pledged to halve the number of malaria deaths and cases in the Commonwealth by 2023.

The Commonwealth countries account for around half of all malaria deaths globally and, if the goal is achieved in all member states, 350 million cases of the disease would be prevented and 650,000 lives saved. But, although Nigeria is among the seven Commonwealth countries WHO said are on track to achieve the target, environmental factors remain a major setback to malaria elimination in the country.

Frequent hospital visit in the past year was difficult for the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Obi (not real name). They had been in and out of hospital almost every other month. If it was not their children, it will be Obi or his wife. The cause of their frequent hospital visit was malaria.

The illness became so frequent that doctors began to wonder if their medications were no longer working. But the protracted case of their two- year -old child rattled doctors who asked questions about where they live. John made some revelations. He lives in a one-room apartment with his family of four.

“Our house is close to a dumpsite. Most of the drainages are blocked. There is also a canal around my area into which residents dump refuse,” he said. Asked how he and his family were protecting against mosquito bites, John replied,

 “Once a while, we spray the room with insecticide but we cannot afford to do that on daily basis”.

The case of John and his family is common to families across Nigeria. Hardly does a month pass without a member coming down with malaria. The World Malaria Report of 2017 showed that Nigeria contributes 27 per cent of the 216 million malaria cases and 24 per cent of the 445,000 malaria deaths.

 Like John and his family, about three out of 10 persons having malaria in the world live in Nigeria. World Health Day: Obaseki harps on attaining Universal Health Coverage in Edo with reforms According to the National Coordinator, NMEP, Dr Audu Mohammed, one out of four deaths from malaria, globally, occurs in Nigeria and over 54 million malaria cases recorded annually for the last three years.

The World Malaria Report of 2017 also revealed that Nigeria had a million more cases of malaria that year compared to the previous year. Factors Experts say environmental factors were to blame. They maintained that unless the country tackles the environmental challenges which aid the breeding of mosquitoes, malaria will never be eliminated. Malaria, although preventable and treatable, can be life-threatening. It is a blood disease caused by a Plasmodium parasite transmitted to humans by anopheles mosquitoes.

 Bush and stagnant water around homes, rainfall, low altitude and high temperatures favour the breeding of malaria vectors, as well as parasite reproduction within them. Sadly, many cities and communities in Nigeria have been overrun with refuse. Drainage systems are blocked in almost every nook and cranny of the country. Sewage systems are broken everywhere. According to experts, an Anopheles mosquito, which carries parasites that transmit malaria, thrives in such an environment.

A retired health officer in Lagos, Mr Michael Somoye, said until Nigeria begins to address the poor drainage system, the mosquito which transmits malaria will continue to thrive. Somoye, who lamented that 70 per cent of Nigerians at both general and tertiary hospitals are malaria patients, lamented a situation where communities wait for rain to fall so as to dump their refuse into the drainages and government is not focusing on drainages. Nigeria, he said, has failed to manage water retention around homes and drainages. “If there is mosquito, there will be malaria. It’s a pity we have refused to roll back malaria even though we have a programme called Roll Back Malaria.

 We have been rolling malaria forward since 1980″, the retiree said. Somoye, who condemned so much focus of government on importation of malaria drugs than environmental control in the elimination of the vectors, said: “An atom of water in the drainage can breed mosquitoes. So if our drainages can be well constructed, refocused and reconstructed to allow easy flow of the drainages, Nigeria will be reducing the incidences of malaria

. “For us to get it right, government should go back to the basics and refocus. The drainages are to be channelled, water must flow. When water is best managed, there will be nothing like breeding of mosquitoes. Let government go back to the basics where the drainages move and not stagnated. Where you are seeing rats in the day time, there is a problem with the nation.”

He further identified the open dumping system as another major setback in the fight against malaria. “We don’t have any sanitary landfill in Nigeria and that’s another problem.

At our various dumping sites, we have mosquitoes and rats thriving everywhere. There is a need for us to begin to clean our habitation”. Proffering solution to some of the environmental challenges, he said government should ensure that Nigerians don’t have banana plantation or citrus fruits in and around homes as they retain water.

 “Every citrus fruit retains water, and when they retain water, they breed mosquito. So, you cannot use your compound as a plantation for banana trees. Some use mineral bottles to do their wall fencing. It is wrong. It will retain water and also breed mosquito”.

The former President of Environmental Association of Nigeria and a member, Pest Control Association of Nigeria, PeCAN, added: “We can render mosquitoes infertile.  There are some low-line areas in some areas. All these have to be filled up so there must be no retention of water. Once you can nip in the bud mosquitoes, there will be no malaria.

 “If 10 per cent of the money we are using importing drugs is channelled into the construction of drainages, within a period of five years, we will be able to eliminate mosquitoes”.

Lamenting that a lot of man-hour and time are lost to malaria, he said many Nigerian children are dying of malaria on daily basis. Somoye urged the Buhari administration to revert all malaria efforts to 70 percent preventive and 30 percent curative.

 Biggest killer On his part, PeCAN President, Mr. Kunle Williams, who described malaria as one of the biggest killers of man, stressed the need to prevent mosquitoes in the environment by ensuring that there are no stagnant water and unused water. On the theme, ‘Zero Malaria Starts With Me’, Williams urged every Nigerian to join in the fight against malaria.

 “How can everyone be part of malaria elimination? Everybody should be a part of the fight by making sure that the environment is neat; without mosquitoes in our environment, we will not go to the hospital”, he said.

“We advise that people should not allow stagnant water in their environment. Make sure your environment is clean and dispose of unused water. When the environment is neat, mosquito bites that cause malaria will stop. If we don’t have mosquitoes in our environment, we will not have to go to hospital for malaria treatment”.

 Also speaking, the President of Malaria Society of Nigeria, Dr John Puddicombe, said, “We all know how mosquito breeds, we know the life cycle of the mosquito, it breeds in stagnant water. The only thing is to keep away stagnant water from our community and environment talking about environmental management. There is also the need to encourage people to sleep under the long-lasting mosquito treated net. Some people collect treated nets and use them as fishing nets because they don’t know.

So awareness is important.” Meanwhile, Nigeria and nine other African countries, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda, labelled as malaria highest burden countries need to step up efforts towards tackling the disease. Nigeria, for one, needs to adopt a more holistic approach towards the management of the environment as well as ensuring community empowerment and awareness creation in the grassroots to achieve a malaria-free Nigeria.