The Anambra State Government has said under-five death rate due to malaria reduced from 77.8 per cent to 14.3 per cent from February 2022 to February 2023.
Dr Afam Obidike, the state Commissioner for Health, gave the statistics on Thursday in Awka, at a news conference to mark World Malaria Day with the theme – “Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement”.
World Malaria Day is commemorated every April 25 to raise awareness about the vector borne disease and to promote efforts to combat it.
Obidike said: “In the last one year, Anambra has done extremely well in the fight against malaria and this is because Gov. Chukwuma Soludo’s administration invested and put some interventions in place.
“In June 2022, the state government collaborated with Malaria Consortium to distribute 3.8 million mosquito nets to households and embarked on desilting of drains across the state. These interventions yielded positive results.
“According to data, under-five death rate due to malaria has reduced from 77.8 per cent to 14.3 per cent and the cases of malaria fever presented at the hospitals reduced by 30 per cent in one year.
“Mosquito nets use increased from 27 per cent to 57 per cent. The national benchmark for net use is 37 per cent.
“So, this shows that Anambra had gone ahead in the national benchmark. We need to sustain the momentum.”
The Commissioner urged residents to sleep under mosquitoes bed nets, clean their environment and drains where mosquitoes breed as well as clear bushes around their homes to prevent malaria.
He also advised resident to visit hospitals for proper diagnosis and treatment of malaria as the state government had subsidized the cost treatment, especially for children.
“It is unfortunate to note that when people feel they have fever, they buy and take anti-malaria drugs without proper test and prescription. Drugs are chemical substance and it has effects in the body.
“People should not consume anti-malaria drugs anyhow, it is dangerous.
“Fever can be a symptom of viral infection, tonsillitis or sepsis. So, we encourage people to go for test before they start treatment of malaria,” he said.
In his remarks, Dr Afam Anaeme, Director, Public Health, said there was the need to intensify efforts to prevent malaria scourge.
He said that the state government and its partners were not relenting in their efforts as they were using the resources at their disposal to tackle the killer disease.
