According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of fatalities caused by malaria has decreased by more than half in Nigeria.
According to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, the rate has decreased from 2.1 per 1,000 people to 0.9 per 1,000 population.
At introducing the 2022 Nigeria Malaria Report, which occurred yesterday in Abuja, she said Nigeria was responsible for around 27 percent of the worldwide burden of malaria cases. She also mentioned that the prevalence of malaria in the nation had decreased by 26 percent since 2000.
According to her, in 2021, the rate dropped from 413 per 1,000 to 302 per 1,000.
She stated that “Drivers of this continuing disease burden include the size of Nigeria’s population, which makes scaling up intervention challenging; suboptimal surveillance systems, which pick up less than 40% of the country’s malaria data; inadequate funding to ensure universal interventions across all states; and health seeking behavior, where people use the private sector, which has limited regulation, preferentially.”
She said the study on malaria in Nigeria in 2022 was a fantastic example of an outstanding model to utilize data to prioritize health activities.
“By using data, we can prioritize and focus actions, maximize the use of available resources, and simplify the performance monitoring process at both the federal and state levels. According to what she had to say, “This report is the result of the collaboration between the Global Malaria Programme, the WHO Regional Office for Africa, and the Nigeria Malaria Elimination Programme.”
She said that the study included vital information on the prevalence of malaria in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
She said that the study was one of a kind since it provided data at the state level to lead a genuinely subnational response to malaria. The report also included an assessment of malaria in each state, particularly emphasizing population demographics, malaria interventions, climate, and disease burden.
According to Moeti, Nigeria also achieved progress in HIV between 2015 and 2021, fulfilling two of the 95-95-95 targets in the process.
She said there was an increase in TB intervention coverage with an increase in case detection over the same period.
Prof. Muhammad Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health, said that the ministry was working towards retraining around 120,000 health personnel to increase the quality of healthcare service across the nation.
He said that the ministry was also making efforts to lessen the impact of illnesses and the number of fatalities they cause.
