“Nigeria can Eradicate Malaria through Proactive Measures”

Labake Fashogbon
As Nigeria joins the rest of the globe to mark this year’s World Malaria Day today, the citizens have been advised to take pro active measures in dealing with the high prevalence rate of the scourge.

Some of these measures include; sleeping under long lasting treated insecticide net to avoid mosquitoes bite which is the carrier of malaria, using trustable insecticide like Mortein, maintain an hygiene environment and the constant use of larvicides.

By adopting these, the Marketing Director, RB, West Africa, Oguzhan Silivrili affirmed that Nigeria can be sure of eliminating malaria.

The RB boss who hinted on the interventions put in place by the company, to eradicate malaria in Lagos state and across Nigeria, explained that Mortein, in partnership with the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), through the Lagos State Ministry of Health (LSMOH) commissioned a research which its tagged the “Mortein Own a Community Project” in Kosofe Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State.

According to him, the objective of the programme was partly to deliver on the United Nations (UN) millennium development goal 3, which is ‘To end the epidemic of Malaria by year 2030’ and to declare war against the scourge in Kosofe community which is identified as one of mosquito hot spot areas in lagos.

“At the end of this programme which saw some selected areas in the community provided with Mortein insecticide, long lasting treated insecticide nets and larvicides, the final result showed a significant reduction in the cases of malaria, especially amongst children in homes where all the interventions provided to them were used. In six months, there was a 55 per cent reduction in malaria cases amongst children under the age of 10 ,” Silivrili revealed.

Lending her voice, the Marketing Manager of Mortein, Bamigbaiye-Elatuyi Omotola, added, ” we do not intend to stop in Kosofe, as we also plan to implement this across Nigeria, starting with Lagos state. We are partnering with the Civil Society for Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN) in Lagos state, and over the next couple of months, we will replicate the ‘Own a Community Project’ across 20 select grass-root communities in Lagos state.