Report: Malaria Cases Increased to 241 Million in 2020

•69,000 died of the disease in one year

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN) has alerted Nigerians on the upsurge in cases of malaria illness which it said reached 241 million in 2020.

Quoting the latest World Malaria Report, ACOMIN said there were, “241 million cases of malaria in 2020 compared to 227 million cases in 2019, an increase of about 14 million cases”.

“The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 627,000 in 2020, an increase of 69,000 deaths over the previous year. According to the report, about 80 per cent of all malaria deaths in Africa came from children between the ages of zero and five.”

Speaking at the quarterly advocacy meeting of the group, ACOMIN National Coordinator, Mr. Ayo Ipinmoye said half of the world’s population were facing the risk of malaria, with the most vulnerable groups being pregnant women and children below the age of five.

“All these point to one fact: Malaria, a preventable and treatable disease spread by the female anopheles mosquito is still a leading cause of illness and death in many countries, among which is Nigeria,” he said.

Ipinmoye said in seeking permanent solutions to this life-threatening disease, there was need to continually review the strategies being employed to fight malaria, with a view to bridging the gaps that undermine the tireless efforts being made by the government and non-state actors.

He stated several efforts were being made to eliminate malaria disease in Nigeria which included the provision of free Long-Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs), deployment of volunteers to carry out Interpersonal Communication at the grassroot level, provision of free malaria test kits and medicines at some health facilities and Community-led Monitoring to ensure accountability in malaria interventions.

Ipinmoye lamented that one of challenges observed in the implementation of the malaria intervention programme in Nigeria was that most state governments were doing enough to take ownership of the health facilities provided by the Global Fund.

With the increase in malaria morbidity and mortality, Ipinmoye said it had become necessary to look into some of the existing gaps that were yet to be adequately resolved.

According to him, one major area that needed improvement in malaria intervention was the aspect of gender balance.

He emphasised the need to empower both men and women with the right knowledge, as opposed to leaving any particular gender behind.

Ipinmoye further said the World Health Organisation had listed ways in which gender imbalance affects malaria intervention.

These included access to health care services, cultural inhibitions to use of insecticide treated net and poverty.

He said in some parts of Nigeria, women have to ask for their husband’s permission to access treatment for themselves and/or their children.

He added many Nigerian communities, due to cultural and religious boundaries, male health workers are not allowed to attend to female patients, especially when the patients are married women.

Also Ipinmoye said the WHO has economic inequities sometimes place women at a disadvantage because they lack the financial resources required to access malaria services at health facilities.

According to him, acceptability and use of LLINs are strongly linked to culturally accept sleeping patterns, in which gender plays an important role.

“In some instances, young children sleep with their mother and are therefore protected by her bednet if she has one. Alternatively, if a household only has one bednet, priority may be given to the male head of the household as he is often considered the primary breadwinner. In other contexts, men have very little access to ITNs if they predominantly sleep outside,” he said.

Ipinmoye also expressed concern over the continued delay in the approval of funds to defray federal government’s counterpart obligation in the malaria intervention programme.

“If we are spending billions renovating the buildings of the National Assembly, that same National Assembly should support investment in the provision of quality healthcare for Nigerians,” he said.

On his part, the representative of the Country Coordinating Mechanism for the Global Fund, Mr. Ibrahim Tajudeen, clarified what he described as misinformation about the $200 million loan being sought form the World Bank for the execution of the anti-malaria intervention programme.

He said contrary to the erroneous report, the loan was intended to pay federal government’s share of the counterpart funding to enable the country access the over $1.1 billion grant from the United States and the Global Fund.