Abuja, 25 April 2017 - In response to the theme of the 2017 World Malaria Day (WMD), ‘End Malaria For Good’ and slogan ‘’What’s your role’, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole is calling for increased resources from government and private sector for the rapid elimination of the deadly disease.

“We have made modest progress but still far from our dream of a Malaria-free Nigeria. I have no doubt we can do it together”, the minister stated at the commemoration of this year’s event in Abuja on 25 April 2017.

Professor Adewole at the event urged for the total commitment of stakeholders in the fight against malaria, encouraging healthcare workers, government at all levels to be accountable. He emphasized that Malaria remains a major public Health challenge in Nigeria and has caused and still causes the country a huge loss of financial capital.

Nigeria contributes 29% of the 212 million global malaria cases and 26% of the 429,000 total malaria deaths (2016 World Malaria Reports).

The Minister therefore reminded the populace to embrace the key malaria strategies as enshrined in the National Malaria Strategic Plan; everyone should sleep inside an insecticide treated mosquito net, seek testing before treatment if one has symptoms of malaria, and if confirmed, be treated with a quality antimalarial.

Professor Adewole however acknowledged the efforts of the Malaria partnership programme in the country and partners as well as the progress made especially in mosquito net coverage, and commended the reduction of malaria prevalence to 27% from 35% in 2010.

He highlighted some of the successes recorded by  the Malaria Programme in Nigeria which  include, increase in household ownership of mosquito nets which has increased from 43% in 2010 to 69% in 2015 and 49% of people are sleeping inside the nets.  According to the Minister, 58.8million nets have been distributed in 22 out of 36 states from 2013 to 2016.

In his speech on the occasion, the acting WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr Rex Mpazanje highlighted the achievements recorded at global, regional and national levels aimed at efforts to defeat malaria. He noted that WMD calls for renewed national commitments and galvanize continued domestic and external investment for malaria prevention and control.

“Although commendable progress has been made, the slogan ‘What’s your role’ clearly remind us all of the continued fight against malaria that we need to sustain collectively. Government, private sector, traditional institutions, individuals, healthcare workers and all partners need to reaffirm their commitments towards universal coverage of antimalarial interventions and eventual achievement of a Malaria-free Nigeria”, Dr Mpazanje stated.

The World Health Assembly set aside 25 April of every year as WMD for creating awareness and mobilizing support for the elimination programme.

Support for the national Malaria Programme is provided by WHO, DFID, President’s Malaria initiative and the Global Fund.

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For more information, please contact:

Technical contact:

Dr Lynda Ozor; Tel: +234 803 402 0832; Email: ozorl [at] who.int " target="_blank">ozorl [at] who.int

Ms  Charity Warigon; Tel: +234 810 221 0093; Email:warigonc [at] who.int" target="_blank"> warigonc [at] who.int

Below:

01. Professor Adewole speaking during 2017 WMD

02. Dr Mpazanje (left) and Professor Adewole at the 2017 WMD event in Abuja

03. Rally to commemorate 2017 WMD in Kano City