According to Prof. Dennis Aribodor, a public health parasitologist at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, the prohibitive expense of malaria medications is forcing most families to cure the illness with home remedies.
Aribodor urged the government to make it a policy for children to receive free treatment for malaria at all of the nation’s public health facilities.
The public health specialist made these remarks on Monday in Awka as a part of events honoring World Malaria Day, which is observed on April 25 this year.
Aribodor, who founded the Malaria Eradication and Safe Health Initiative of Nigeria and serves as the South-East Zonal Coordinator of the Civil Society Network in Malaria Control, Immunization, and Nutrition, claimed that since malaria has caused so many avoidable deaths, it is essential to completely eradicate the disease.
According to him, it is crucial to ensure that children who are most allergic to the virus are identified and treated without incurring any fees because many impoverished families have turned to home remedies, which have a high rate of kidney failure.
“The residents of the villages lack the resources to care for their kids. Because some of those herbal concoctions are unregulated, they turn to herbal mixtures that cause renal issues in children.
The kidney suffers more the more you give it. Kidney disease is now a widespread issue among children. Therefore, the government ought to assist these low-income families by ensuring that the primary health care facilities are operational and that pharmaceuticals are available and significantly subsidized.
He asserts that the government’s lack of political will is the main obstacle to the fight against malaria, and he adds that only foreign organizations, such as UKAID, the Global Fund, and a few others, have emerged as the main financiers of malaria control in Nigeria.
He claimed that Algeria, where malaria was first identified in the 17th century, had successfully eradicated the illness in 2020 thanks to domestic funding; they hadn’t waited for outside help.
He explained that a dose of a single anti-malaria medicine currently costs between N2,000 and N2,500. A nice mosquito net will cost between N2,500 and N3000 to purchase. He posed the question of how many residents in Anambra state can currently afford it.
“The government of Anambra should copy what Algeria did and aggressively subsidize malaria medications, making sure that people can access them from medical institutions.
Malaria is their biggest health concern, according to the people we spoke with in the areas, he said.
