We Would Reduce Malaria Burden to 10 Percent, Ehanire Vows

By Nosa Alekhuogie

The Honourable Minister for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has promised that his administration is poised to reduce the malaria burden to 10 per cent in the next five years.

Ehanire said this at an event hosted by GBCHealth in collaboration with Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA) themed, “Combating Malaria in Africa: Lessons and Opportunities”, which held virtually.

The minister, who was represented by Dr. Alex Okoh, said the initiative is part of the new malaria strategic plan for 2021-2025 aimed at defeating the parasite and reducing its attendant death toll in Africa.

According to him, they are committed to reducing the malaria burden in the next five years to a parasite prevalence of 10 per cent and reduced mortality attributable to Malaria to less than 50 deaths per 1000 lives in 2025 as reflected in the new malaria strategic plan for 2021-2025.

“I am delighted to announce that as of today in the African region, malaria cases per 1000 population at risk has shown a decline from 362. 8 per cent in 2000 to 225.2 per cent in 2019. Similarly, death per 100,000 population at risk, reduced from 212.1 in 2000 to 40.3 per cent in 2019,” he said.

The minister also lamented about the crippling effects of the disease on the economic lives of the people, stating that with the implementation of the new malaria plan, the effects of malaria on the health and economic lives of the masses would improve drastically.

“To ensure that we continue with this progress in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to sustain malaria intervention across the country.

“We had to develop a business continuity plan ensuring that implementation processes align with global practices aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 and malaria related illnesses,” he said.

Also speaking at the event , the Chief Executive Officer, GBCHealth, Ms. Lesley-Anne Long, explained that the event is part of a targeted community development, workforce development and supported programme aimed at influencing action to eradicate the disease.

“This CAMA series have brought indispensable stakeholders in the health sector in the fight against Malaria with businesses raising funds on malaria strategies, and investing directly in the malaria eradication effort.

” Investment is not only about dollars and naira. Investment is also about bringing intellectual capital and technological capabilities to the challenge and the willingness to engage new ways to help speedup malaria control, diagnosis and treatment efforts across the affected countries,” she said.

Group Deputy Managing Director, Access Bank , Roosevelt Ogbonna, who represented the Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, spoke on the effect of the disease and its commitment towards supporting the cause.

He said that it is important that citizens are told the narrative of malaria so as to grasp its deadliness.

“There has been a lot of story telling around COVID and if you compare the data between COVID and malaria, it speaks volumes.

“In a 2018 data on Malaria, 125million people were infected in Africa compared to 4.5million people infected with COVID. About 120,000 deaths in Africa arising from COVID versus 400,000 deaths from malaria in 2018.

“We have more people dying from Malaria itself but the story is not being told as effectively as we should.

” If we create a platform for individuals to express their corporate social responsibility, they would do so. As Access Bank, we are committed to partnering with the public sector across all the countries that we operate in.

“We are committed to CAMA. Although CAMA has done an excellent job, we want to believe that much more can be done in leveraging technology to solve Africa health problems,” he concluded.