By Dare Akogun
Malaria has been identified as a major public health problem in Nigeria and has the highest out of fifteen countries who accounted for about 80 percent of global malaria deaths in the year 2016 alone, All of which were in sub-Saharan Africa, except for India.
In Nigeria, Malaria illnesses occur all through the year, affects everybody, but children under 5years and pregnant women are mostly at risk taking about 97 percent of the all reported cases.
Though Malaria has a significant impact on the people and economy of Nigeria, Malaria is Treatable, Preventable and Curable. With concerted efforts, no child, pregnant woman or adult should be allowed to die of malaria ever again.
This was what prompted the Civil Society for Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN) which is a National Network of Civil Society Organizations working on the prevention, treatment and mitigation of the impact of malaria, and the promotion of immunization and better nutrition in Nigeria.
ACOMIN which is a non-political, non-sectarian and non-profit organization working in collaboration with the government, partners and stakeholders both at National and State level recently held a one day workshop and Media Brief on Global Fund Malaria Accountability and Advocacy Project where the Kwara State government has been urged to increase their monitoring of funds allocated to the health sector in carrying out their core mandate of service to the people.
The Kwara Coordinator of the Association of Civil Society for Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN), Olatunbosun Oluwafemi, said the state government under the leadership of Governor Abdul Rahman Abdul Rasaq needs to devise monitoring techniques to ensure that health workers are readily available to attend to patients in justifying the funds allocated to the health sectors yearly.
He said if the fight to eliminate malaria in Kwara state and Nigeria as a whole would succeed, significant funding needs to be dedicated towards the efforts of governments and civil society organizations.
Oluwafemi said the Global Fund is currently funding malaria interventions in Kwara and twelve other states in the country, in partnership with The Malaria Presidential Initiative, which is also working in thirteen states whilst efforts are in progress to bring on board, a Consortium of the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank and African Development Bank to help cover the gaps in malaria financing in Nigeria.
He however called for improved collaboration between government, civil society organisations and religious leaders to create more awareness in the fight against eliminating the malaria scourge in the society.
In a presentation at the workshop A Behavioural Change Communication specialist with the Society for Family Health, Cyril Alobu said the society is very active in Kwara state in the aspect of capacity building and staff training on the understanding of new treatments of malaria.
He said the society is also creating awareness in the rural areas of malaria prevention methods, because the society understands that prevention is a major factor in the fight against menace of malaria.
He said that the public health system in the state is not perfect yet, but it’s on the road to perfection if the already established model is sustained and subsequently scale up to involve more people in the state.
Alobu also advised pregnant women to take the intermittent preventive treatment from the 16th week upward till the time of delivery which is free in every health centre and also the woman needs to sleep inside treated mosquito nets, to reduce the infant and maternal deaths in the state.
He however advised the Kwara state government to upgrade health post in the rural areas and increase the manpower in the health sector by recruiting more personnel to man the different health post in the state so that the Intermittent Preventive Treatment will be available for more pregnant women in the state.
The Director of Public health in the Kwara state Ministry of health Dr Oluwatosin Fakayode while speaking at the workshop however said the state government has committed a lot of resources in the prevention of the malaria scourge in the state, through the creation of interpersonal and communication agents that are saddled with the responsibility of enlightening the citizenry on the dangers of self medication.
Dr Fakayode also advised the general public to go for testing before carrying out malaria treatment, saying that all fever is not malaria has it has erroneously believed and passed from generations to generations.
He however advised health workers to work with conscience, love and good attitude when attending to patients especially in the rural areas because if a life is lost it can never be regained.
The Kwara State Governor Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Razaq recently approved the immediate payment of N232 million in counterparts funding to deepen access to primary health care, health insurance and nutrition for under-three children in the state.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor Rafiu Ajakaye in the statement announcing the approval said 100 million naira of the amount will go for counterpart funds for Basic Health care Provision Funds 50 million naira for Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria and 82million naira to access global grants for malaria.
Ajakaye said the release of the counterpart funds for Basic Health care Provision would grant Kwara state the access to the World Bank and Federal Government’s grant to cater for health needs of pregnant and nursing women and children.
This move is a welcome development that will go in a long way to help in the fight against the prevalence of infant and maternal mortality rate in the state, which malaria is a major contributing factor.
Apart from this, the funds will also help to fix facilities for primary health care and reduce the pressure on secondary and tertiary health institutions across the state.
The Government as a matter of urgency must fund massive infrastructural programs, purchase of equipment and manpower for any meaningful delivery of quality health care in the state, and also encourage each facility to compete and generate income through creativity and delivery of much needed services locally.
By doing this Hospitals will be accountable to its employees, by employing only much needed manpower and weed out ghost workers, as are rampant in many health facilities.
Incomes and outcomes can then be measured and remunerations will be based on actual patient activities and service delivery.
The Primary healthcare is the cornerstone of true quality health in any nation and as such the focus must also be on delivering functional primary health care centers in all the nooks and crannies of state.
The Health centres must be close to the people and accessible in terms of location and affordability.