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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Center for Media Advocacy for Mother and Child (CAMAC) on Friday took a malaria prevention campaign to Kakuri market in Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
World Malaria Day is celebrated every 25th of April to bring greater awareness to the global fight and recognise the existence of malaria across the globe. This year’s theme is “Harness Innovation to Reduce the Malaria Disease Burden and Save Lives”.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that number of malaria deaths stood at 627, 000 in 2020 with the highest percentage of the figure coming from six Sub-Saharan countries including Nigeria.
Executive Director, CAMAC, Alex Uangbaoje, said the market sensitisation became necessary because everyone must get involved to reduce the burden of malaria by preventing it from happening.
He emphasised the need for every household to use an insecticide-treated mosquito net, clean and disinfect their environment and in any case, they feel symptoms of malaria they should avoid self-medication but seek expert recommendations and also ensure they take a lot of rest to help their system.
According to him, “people are more prone to malaria in the rainy seasons and as such, this is the time when communities should join hands with the government and other stakeholders working to ensure malaria is eradicated.
“According to the WHO report, there were an estimated 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 malaria deaths mostly of children under five.
“The 2020 figure represents about 14 million more cases in 2020, compared to 2019, and 69,000 more deaths. In that report, Nigeria was also among six countries that accounted for 55 per cent of all cases worldwide”.
Alex said it was the alarming report that propelled his organisation to come up with a campaign that will enable it to reach people in public places like the markets, worship centres, homes and workplaces with messages on malaria prevention.
The project is being supported by an online news platform called Newsweb Express in collaboration with Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME) a global network uniting civil society organisations and communities to achieve malaria elimination.
