‘Data collection key to ending malaria’

Country Director, Africare International, Dr Orode O. Doherty has said that Nigeria needs to improve its data collection for malaria in order to eliminate the disease in the country.

She stated this in Abuja during a public sector stakeholders meeting on the dissemination of the results of the MAPS-C Project.

She said the introduction of the Fionet mobile device guide care has helped capture reliable data at the point of health care services, adding that the device shows promise in reducing cost and preventing resistance to antimalaria drugs.

Orode said that the Exxon Mobile funded project has helped reduce treatment of malaria by 60 percent within six months of the introduction of Fionet device in the healthcare system, saying that there was need to introduce the devise in the south-south states.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole who was represented by the Director of Public Health, Dr Evelyn Ngige said even though the burden of malaria was gradually reducing, the country was still malaria-endemic.

While calling on local partners to support government in the fight against malaria, he said that Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) and active typhoid which can be read through the Fionet device would go a long way in solving 50 percent of fever problems in the country.