FG Cautions Against Use of Uncertified Herbal Remedy for Malaria Treatment

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The federal government has cautioned Nigerians against the use of unapproved herbal remedies for treating malaria. This is in its continued effort to guard against the hazards of unwholesome medicines.
Deputy Director and Head of Advocacy and Social Mobilisation at the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Mr. Raphael Onyilo, gave the advice at the weekend during a National Advocacy Focused Media meeting.
Similarly, Civil Society on Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN) counselled members of the public to take proactive measures to keep their environment clean to avoid an upsurge in malaria sickness during the rainy season.

Onyilo said that there was an inter-ministerial committee set up to coordinate the efforts of various agencies towards addressing environmental issues as one of the risk factors causing malaria in Nigeria.
He expressed concern over the resort to herbal remedies for malaria treatment by some Nigerians due to the high cost of orthodox medicines.
Onyilo said NMEP was advising Nigerians not to engage in the use of local herbal remedies, popularly known as “Agbo” because they were not certified for consumption.

“We will always discourage the use of herbal remedies, such as ‘Agbo’, because it is not certified by appropriate regulatory authority for consumption or for treating malaria,” he said
He, however, said there was a department of traditional and complimentary medicine at the Federal Ministry of Health that assisted traditional herbal medicine practitioners to obtain certification for their products.  

Onyilo also advised members of the public to avoid taking medicine for malaria without first ascertaining the illness through tests.
According to him there are designated health centres, clinics and pharmacy shops in various towns and communities that are equipped with rapid malaria test kits to carry out malaria test.
He stated, “So, malaria has a rapid diagnostic test kits, which can produce results within 15 to 20 minutes. I want to assure you that in any community we find ourselves, we have people that can carry out malaria test.

“All the community pharmacists and patent medicine vendors, most of them have been trained on how to administer the malaria test.”
Onyilo said Nigeria had the resource capacity to develop and produce drugs for malaria, which could help bring down cost of treatment of the disease.
Equally speaking at the forum, ACOMIN National Co-ordinator, Ayo Ipinmoye, said the rainy season brought significant rainfall and high humidity levels, thereby creating perfect conditions for mosquito breeding, particularly, anopheles mosquitoes, which were known for spreading malaria

Ipinmoye said the risk of infection was higher in some areas than others depending on multiple factors including environment and the type of local mosquitoes.
He said everyone should be aware and concerned about the possibility of malaria infection at this season.
Ipinmoye also said some of the measures citizens should adopt to lower the attack of malaria vector were use of mosquito treated nets in the homes, keeping surroundings clean, and testing for malaria to detect the symptoms before treatment.
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary of CCM, Tajudeen Ibrahim, said over $2 billion had been attracted from the Global Fund for the Elimination of Malaria in Nigeria since 2003.

Ibrahim stated, “For this implementation period for malaria specifics we have $396, 810, 785. This is expected to be utilised to support certain interventions, such as planning, vector control through distribution of insecticidal treated nets.”

Ibrahim also said there was an ongoing intervention activity known as artisanal malaria chemo-prevention among pregnant women.