Mortein Commences Research to Reduce Malaria
As part of effort to combat the scourge of malaria in the country, a fast moving consumer goods company, RB Nigeria Limited, has instituted an initiative to curb the menace of the disease.
The new initiative, ‘Own A Community’ campaign was unveiled in Lagos by the company, which is the marketer of Mortein Power Guard, an insect killer.
According to the Marketing Director of the company, Oguhzan Silivrili, the new initiative was a partnership programme between Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and the Lagos State Ministry of Health
Silivrili noted that the campaign was another strategy employed by the company to put an end to deadly disease in the country.
He said the focus of the campaign was a step ahead of previous campaigns the company had embarked on in the past, disclosing that the initiative was an effort to communicate the relevance of the three-pronged approach to eliminate malaria, including the use of the treated mosquito net, cleaning of the environment and the proper use of insecticides that kill mosquitoes.
Oguhzan disclosed that the programme is about visiting hospitals “that is why we are going to hospitals to educate them because the issue of malaria is very critical to us as we believe that a healthier life will bring about happy home. The ‘Mortein Train’ that we call ‘’From Community to Community’’ also reaches out to primary healthcare centres. We are committed to these programmes and determined to join hands with the government to kick malaria out of Nigeria.’’
To this end the Marketing Director disclosed that the new initiative, which would kick-off at Kosofe Local Government of the state, would run for six months, adding that the community would be given the three interventions and test the prevalence of malaria after the intervention, in order to compare its baseline. He said that the programme, which was initiated in 2012, is aimed at reaching 500,000 mothers this year.
Speaking on behalf of The National Malaria Elimination Programme, NMEP, Dr. Nnenna Ezeigwe who was represented by the Senior Programme Officer, Global Fund Malaria Project Elimination Programme, Dr. Diwe Ekweremadu, said that the Federal Ministry of Health, is targeting less than five percent pre-elimination of malaria by 2020.
Dr. Diwe said that the prevalence of malaria, according to the 2010 Indicator Survey was 42 per cent nationally adding that 16 percent of hospital visits and 30 per cent of hospitalisation for children below five are attributed to malaria.
“The 2014-2020 Strategic Plan of the government was designed to tackle the disease headon by ensuring a preelimination level of less than five percent by 2020” “We are targeting universal coverage that will ensure that everyone gets to sleep inside a long lasting insecticide net. None of these interventions can do the magic by itself it has to be multipronged. I think we will get there by 2020.’’ He said.
In his remarks, Head of Research Group, Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, Dr. Samson Awolola said the research in Kosofe Local Government was to educate and generate evidenced-based research that intervention can go beyond implementation.