Ondo: NNDC Celebrates World Malaria Day 2024, Call For Clean Environment
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) has celebrated this year’s World Malaria Day, with a call to the people of Ondo State to clean up their environment.
The theme for this year’s Malaria Day is, “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable work”.
The event which took place at Comprehensive Health Centre, Arakale, Akure, the capital of Ondo State, was attended by the NDDC Executives led by Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde, the Executive Director of Corporate Services, Commissioner of Youth and Sports, Hon Saka Ogunleye, Commissioner of Regional Planning, Hon. Gbenga Olaniyi, health workers from the local government, stakeholders in health sector and the community leaders.
In his welcome address, the project consultant, Dr Kelvin Meyeyin asked, how do we eradicate malaria in Nigeria as it is done in Europe and America?
Why are we still spending huge amounts of money in dollars to procure malaria drugs and insecticide-treated nets, why don’t we eradicate it here?
Dr Kelvin said he asked this question during his doctoral study in the United States of America, and it caused a commotion in the hall, and I still ask this question here today.
“Our health workers what are we doing? Our government officials and policymakers, what are we doing to eradicate malaria in Nigeria?
Agreed, we talked about vaccines, how many people have been vaccinated? It is difficult for a household to not produce one person suffering from malaria in a week.
When you look at the cost of the drugs that have been used, the person who will take care of a person down with malaria has a lot of work to do. You can see serious economic epilepsy is affecting us as a nation”.
“In African countries especially, in North Africa, if you are travelling to the US or UK, and malaria symptoms are found in you, you will be isolated for two weeks because those people used their initiative to eradicate it.
So, why do we not eradicate it?, that is the question I have been asking for years and I will continue to ask until I get a satisfactory answer”, he said.
In his speech, the Executive Director of Corporate Services NDDC, Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde said, for us not to be affected by malaria, we must keep our environment clean, as health is wealth.
“Malaria is a killer disease as it has the highest records of the killing disease in Nigeria. It is easy to avoid”.
Abegunde said, that immediately we feel the symptoms in our body, we need to go and see our doctor.
In the lecture delivered by the guest lecturer, Dr. Adekanbi said, malaria is a disease caused by a parasite of the plasmodium family.
” Malaria is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most common poverty-related diseases and is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among young children.
Malaria mostly spreads to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
Blood transfusion and contaminated needles may also transmit malaria, which if left untreated can cause severe health problems such as seizures, brain damage, trouble in breathing, fatigue, confusion, organ failure and death”.
Adekanbi stated further that, infants, children under 5 years, pregnant women, travellers and people with HIV or AIDS are at higher risk of severe infection.
On how to prevent the disease, she said “Malaria can be prevented by avoiding mosquito bites and by taking medicines.
We should talk to a doctor about taking medicines, such as chemoprophylaxis before travelling to areas where malaria is common”.
