World Malaria Day: Avoid self-medication, medical expert advises

As the world celebrates the 2018 World Malaria Day, a medical expert, Dr. Femi Adeoye, has warned against self-medication, especially in the treatment of malaria and other diseases.
Adeoye said this in a chat with our correspondent on the commemoration of the 2018 World Malaria Day, which had the theme: “End Malaria for Good.”
He said people were in the habit of diagnosing malaria themselves when they start to feel sick, following the symptoms they might have experienced.
He noted that people should always insist on tests being carried out by experts before any diagnosis or treatment could be given as self-medication poses a great hazard to the health of individuals.
Adeoye said, ”Malaria is one of the oldest and commonest diseases, which makes many people to take it for granted. Most people think once they get any over-the-counter drugs, after having one or two symptoms without carrying out any test, it’s okay.
“Self-medication is very harmful and there are many dangers associated with it, which many people don’t know of. So, the best way is to carry out a test to ascertain the nature of the sickness, instead of assuming that it is common malaria.”
The medical expert also advised that precautionary measures must be taken against malaria with the use of treated mosquito nets.
“Prevention is better than cure; so we are still hammering on the use of mosquito nets. With the use of mosquito nets, the emergence of the disease will never happen, because malaria is claiming many lives than what people can imagine,” he said.
Recall that the World Malaria Day is an international observance commemorated every year on April 25 in recognition of global efforts to control malaria. This year’s World Malaria Day coincided with the activities to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World Health Organisation.
The Global Malaria Programme is marking the global malaria response, as it reflects on key moments in fighting this disease over the past seven decades.
Health experts say, globally, 3.3 billion people in 106 countries are at risk of malaria, adding that the disease remains one of the oldest in the world.