Head of Programme Management of National Malaria Elimination Programme, Mr Aro Afolabi has disclosed that at least 81,640 Nigerians die of malaria annually which accounts for 19% of the global malaria burden.
According to Afolabi, this implies that every hour nine Nigerians die from malaria.
Afolabi said this in Abuja at a media chart organized by National Malaria Elimination Programme, NMEP, of the Federal Ministry of Health with the theme:” Bridging the resources gap for malaria elimination”.
Meanwhile Mr Afolabi who was represented by Mr Timothy Obot further explained that annually Nigeria records 53 million cases of malaria and accounts for 25% of the global malaria burden and Nigeria will need a total of $108,237,465 to bridge the gap for 2019 to 2020.
He further stated that, Nigeria alone accounts for 53% of the $1.3billion funding gap for essential commodities that include 76% of the funding gap in Artemisin Combination Therapy, ACT, and 86% of the funding gap for Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits, RDTs.
National Cordinator, NMEP, Dr Bala Mohammed, said that the national malaria prevalence dropped from 42% to 27% between 2010 and 2015.
These outcomes were as a result of the synergy and support by government at all levels as well as investments by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria ,GFATM, United States’ President’s Malaria Initiative ,PMI, the U.K Department for International Development, DfID, World Bank, African Development Bank and other Roll Back Malaria ,RBM, partners, Mohammed enumerated.
According to him, this progress has, however, stalled based on the World Health Organization (WHO) 2018 World Malaria Report, WMR, which shows a rise in estimated cases from 52.4 million in 2016 to 53.7 million in 2017, and an estimated additional 3 million cases in the country between 2016 and 2017.
To arrest this negative slide and restore malaria control efforts back on track there is need for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to consolidate on the immediate past gains by improving on resource mobilization, he explained.
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