Lagos State Reiterates Commitment towards Eradicating Malaria
The Deputy Director of Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Malaria Programme Manager for Lagos State, Dr Abimbola Oshinowo, has reiterated the commitment of the state towards eliminating malaria infection among residents.
She made this comments while speaking with journalists at the World Malaria Day Colloquium organised by the Centre for Malaria Research, Diagnosis, Training, and Policy, tagged ‘Reaching the Zero Malaria Target’, recently held at the University of Lagos.
According to her, the quickest and easiest way to ensure that people do not get malaria is through the use of nets “and there is a universal access.
“The vulnerable groups which are the pregnant women and under five children, we want to ensure they do not get malaria because their immune system is not as high as a normal adult so they need to sleep inside the net.”
Speaking on steps by the states towards eradicating malaria, she said: “We conduct indoor residual spraying and larvae source
management to ensure that areas that do have high mosquitoes and malaria density are more or less reduced through the use of chemical on walls of homes.
“Under diagnosis we want to ensure that people do get tested before they are treated for malaria using ACTs - recommended drugs at this time. Malaria can be preventable and treated if one is diagnosed appropriately.
“For our facilities, we ensure that we have adequate drugs and consumables, and health personnel are trained appropriately with everyone being carried along in the malaria space.
“Not every disease is malaria, even the new trends in malaria, we are looking at technology now for people to understand and be at alert regarding malaria.”
Similarly, while speaking with THISDAY, the Convener of the event, Prof. Wellington Oyibo, spoke on the advantages of leveraging technology to reaching the zero malaria target set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) by 2030.
According to him, “technology is quite wide and further reducing the rate. I look at diagnosis for instance, there are so many ways of diagnosing malaria and you don’t need to come to the health facilities.
“Our community pharmacists diagnose malaria using MRDTs in their facilities. We have the urine malaria test you can actually do at home, so technology is a way of embracing the efforts ongoing at eliminating malaria.
“In the past it was strictly microscopy, you need to come to the health facilities or go to a laboratory to get tested. But now, the testing is at your fingertips.”
Oyibo said technology and innovation has aided prompt and easy testing for malaria in order to treat the disease on time before it becomes a complicated case, adding that this was one way “we can ensure that people do get appropriate malaria management”.
Also speaking, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, FYOODOR Biotechnologies, Dr Eddy Agbo noted that, indigenous African driven technologies should be supported to address needs and make malaria problems to disappear or at least minimise it.
“There is a lot going on in technology. The urine malaria tests allows one to test for malaria at home because malaria comes when least expected and one should be able to self test without disrupting his/her entire day.
“That is the power of technology and it is something that we can all continue to rally around,” he noted.