As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Malaria Day, USAID/Nigeria mission director, Melissa Jones, said as a result of MPI procuring and distributing 90 million insecticide-treated bed nets, over 180 million Nigerians are now protected from malaria.
The mission director disclosed this on Thursday at the 2024 World Malaria Day press briefing, with the theme: ‘Accelerating the Fight Against Malaria for a More Equitable World’, in Abuja.
She also said that three million children under five years of age were protected from malaria after PMI assisted in administering 35 million doses of malaria preventive treatment.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that Nigeria had nearly 67 million cases in 2022, accounting for 27 per cent of the global malaria burden.
Also in 2022, Nigeria accounted for 31 per cent of global deaths and 38 per cent of global deaths in children aged under 5 years.
However, Jones said since year 2000, in Nigeria, malaria deaths decreased from 194,000 in 2021 to 188,480 in 2022, adding that prevention of malaria in Nigeria has contributed to the overall global success of the PMI program.
She, therefore, urged the federal government to recognise malaria as a priority within the sector wide approach (SWAp) and its sgn finance to the achievement of the strategic vision for the health sector (202—2026).
She also urged the government and private sector to invest in making malaria programming more efficient and effective using data and other evidence to inform malaria implementation and drive faster results.
“Together, through unwavering collaboration and relentless dedication, we can envision a Nigeria where every child sleeps under a mosquito net without fear, where every community has access to life-saving treatment, and where the burden of malaria is but a distant memory,” said Jones.
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