By: Joy Odor/Kaduna
The Chairperson of a Non-Governmental Organization ‘Women-for-Women’, Hajiya Maryam Abubakar has described malaria as a major public health problem in Nigeria that cause death, illness among children and adults, especially pregnant women.
Hajiya Maryam who is the Medical Director of Fatimah Clinic, Angwar Dosa, Kaduna State stated this during a sensitization for Almajirai and Persons Living with Disability (PWD) on various preventive ways against mosquito bites and other environmental related diseases to commemorate World International Mosquito Day on the 20th of August, 2018 in Kaduna.
According to her, this is an effort to educate the children on the dangers of malaria and other environmental diseases which include climate change to protect them and prevent them.
The Chairperson was of the opinion that the sensitization is also a way to see how they can contribute toward raising awareness to prevent people against all forms of diseases associated with mosquito.
Hajiya Maryam stressed that the fight against mosquitoes involves an extensive understanding of where they breed, when and at what time they feed, how they locate their hosts and where they rest to design and direct the right control measures at the right time to achieve maximum protection to people.
She lamented that annually, hundreds of Nigerian children and women usually died as a result of mosquito bite which contribute to maternal maternity across the 36 of the Federation, adding that Sub-Saharan Africa continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden.
“Malaria is caused by parasite called Plasmodium and humans are infected through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes, saying as soon as a human is bitten by an infected mosquito, the parasites reproduce in the host’s liver before infecting and destroying the red blood cells” Maryam stated.
The Chairperson however maintained that as a result of the campaign worldwide and the intervention by UNICEF, WHO, Government, humanitarian organization, NGO and CSO, the mosquito populations have reduced tremendously over the years with consequent reductions while several lives have been saved and improved.
Responding, the Director of African Climate Reporters, Comrade Mohammed Zakariyya said sensitizing the children will help in combating malaria, saying there is the need for Ministry of Environment to double-up effort in the fight against environmental degradation.
