WHO says Nigeria’s malaria death rate drops by 55%

The World Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said on Monday that the malaria death rate in Nigeria has fallen by 55 per cent.

Moeti said this on Monday while launching the 2022 Nigeria Malaria Report in Abuja at the high-level meeting with the Ministers of Health and Social Welfare with the Joint Mission by the Executive Director, Global Fund and the United States Global AIDS Coordinator to Nigeria.

Moeti also said Nigeria has made progress on HIV between 2015 and 2021, meeting two of the 95-95-95 goals, and tuberculosis intervention coverage is improving, with increasing case detection over the same period.

The PUNCH reports that the 95-95-95 goals refer to a set of targets related to the global response to HIV/AIDS. The 95-95-95 goals are as follows: 95 per cent of people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 95 per cent of people diagnosed with HIV will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy (ART); and 95 per cent of people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression. These goals are part of a global strategy to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by ensuring that people living with HIV are diagnosed, treated, and achieve viral suppression.

“The African Region carries a high proportion of the global malaria burden, accounting for about 95 per cent of all malaria cases and 96 per cent of all malaria deaths in 2021.

“While Nigeria accounts for around 27 per cent of the global burden of malaria cases, the country has seen major progress. Malaria incidence has fallen by 26 per cent since 2000, from 413 per 1000 to 302 per 1000 in 2021. Malaria deaths also fell by 55 per cent, from 2.1 per 1000 population to 0.9 per 1000 population.

“Drivers of this continuing disease burden include the size of Nigeria’s population, making scaling up intervention challenging; suboptimal surveillance systems, which pick up less than 40 per cent of the country’s malaria data; inadequate funding to ensure universal interventions across all states; and health-seeking behaviour, where people use the private sector, with limited regulation, preferentially,” she stated.

She, however, said addressing the prevention, elimination, and control of malaria and the burden of other diseases requires critical data and information gathering for evidence-based investment and decision-making.

She said the report provides critical information on the status of malaria in the country.

“Going forward, the Regional Office must support the generation of the data and evidence required to develop similar reports on other diseases and conditions.

“This will enable countries to monitor interventions at the national and sub-national level to tailor the use of funds by donors and the government in the control of communicable and non-communicable diseases,” she added.

On his part, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, said the government will work on improving health governance in the country.

Pate said the government will work with development partners and the private sector to pull resources together to improve health outcomes.

He said the ministry intends to carry out the retraining of about 120,000 health workers and update their standards of practice.

“Whatever we do, if we don’t succeed in reducing the burden of disease, we shall be improving the survival of those who are affected by infections that can take their lives,” he said.

(Punch)