AS part of efforts at meeting the health related Millennium Development Goals target, the Federal Government will soon make available cheaper malaria drugs to Nigerians.
The Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange who stated this at the weekend in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the 13th �Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board Meeting�, bemoaned the rising burden of malaria disease on the African sub region especially Nigeria where minimal achievement has been made towards mitigating malaria impact on its economic development.
Grange observed that if not taken seriously, malaria could deter Nigeria from achieving the health related Millennium Development Goals by 2015. According to her �Malaria is responsible for high mortality and morbidity rates in the endemic countries such as Nigeria .
If we do not tackle malaria, Nigeria may miss health related aspects of the Millennium Development Goals. To achieve this all important target, the Federal Government will soon make cheaper and effective malaria drugs available to the Nigerian people. Poverty remains central in malaria issue. This is because the infected people or their relatives spends hour assessing the drugs and also pay so much money to have those drugs.
�Therefore, majority of our people are poor and cannot buy the drugs and this is where government comes in. We must give effective drugs at subsidized rates and equally empower communities on how to protect themselves against malaria infection.
This we will do through distribution of insecticide treated bed nets, cheaper drugs and spray chemicals.� The Minister believed that Nigeria is currently performing badly in distributing insecticide treated bed net as only about 6.8 per cent has been covered against 80 per cent coverage as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The seasonal movement of nomads is also a cause of worry to Grange. She said government will soon begin the training of health workers at the grassroots to attend to nomads. She added that the Nurses and Midwifery Council of Nigeria has equally agreed to send their training nurses and midwifery to the rural areas for their one year training to further complement the effort of community health workers.
Dec92007