..Offers free screening, drugs to Ogun community
To further tackle the scourge of malaria in Nigeria, the Malaria Society of Nigeria in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research ,Yaba, Lagos, has offered free malaria screening and drugs to the residents of Itele Community in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The free malaria screening exercise which witnessed the distribution of Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets to the residents was organised by MSN to commemorate the 2019 World Malaria Day with the theme, “Zero Malaria Starts with Me”.
The programme, which took place at the Itele Primary School Play Ground, was sponsored by F&F Group Limited, an office and banking automation company owned by one of the illustrious sons of the community, Mr Femi Onamusi to prevent malaria in the area through awareness creation.
World Malaria Day is observed worldwide on April 25 every year to provide education and understanding of malaria as a global scourge that is preventable and a disease that is curable.
The World Health Organisation in its World Malaria Report 2018 said that 25 per cent of malaria cases recorded worldwide are from Nigeria.
Addressing the residents on how to protect themselves against malaria through environmental cleanliness and by sleeping under insecticide treated nets, President of MSN, Dr Babajide Puddicombe, said the Federal Government cannot win the fight against malaria by focusing its awareness and efforts only in the urban areas and cities.
He said :”To phase out malaria in Nigeria, the government should concentrate more awareness and efforts on the grassroots in the fight. Government must realise that it cannot beat malaria without grassroots involvement and participation.
“So far, government is not fighting malaria as it should because rural communities are left out in the fight.”
Besides increased grassroots awareness and involvement, Puddicombe added that the best way government could defeat malaria was to join forces with non-governmental organisations in the fight against the disease like MSN, stressing that the government cannot do it alone.
“We have passion in the fight against malaria and control activities. So government at all levels should join hands with us. We are ready to go to any part of the country to raise awareness about the scourge provided there is a sponsor” he said.
He noted that the Society would continue to take its awareness to the rural areas with the overall objective of ensuring that malaria was brought under complete control.
Also speaking, Head, Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, NIMR, Dr Olugbenga Aina, implored the government to come to rural areas with its malaria interventions, stating that the prevalence of malaria was more in the rural areas than in urban areas where government was concentrating its efforts more .
He also urged that adequate attention be paid to children above the age of five in the fight against malaria, revealing that the prevalence had shifted from children under the age of five to those above five.
Over 400 Itele residents were screened during the exercise including the Oba of the community, Dr Mufutau Kasali and his wife, Managing Director of F&F Group and sponsor of the programme, Mr Femi Onamusi, pregnant women, children and the elderly.
