‘Malaria kills 4,500 pregnant women annually’

Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Isiaq Salako has lamented that Malaria still remains a major public health problem which ravages Nigeria’s population and renders her communities poorer.

Salako who spoke yesterday during a symposium in commemoration of the 2011 World Malaria Day also disclosed that Malaria kills 4,500 pregnant women annually in the country.
It remained great threat to the survival of the young African children, accounting for 30 percent of all childhood deaths.

He also told participants that the major burden of diseases in the African Region including Nigeria was attributable to vector borne diseases. According to him, it was estimated that 80 to 90 percent of global clinical malaria cases (300 million) and malaria related deaths (1 million) occur in the African continent in Nigeria.
He added that about 40 percent of the population of the world was at risk and about 300-500 million cases occured globally every year.

The commissioner also disclosed that one in four cases of anaemia in Nigeria was caused by malaria and reduces one percent of Nigeria’s gross national product annually, saying this accounted for economic loss of about N132 billion annually. Describing Nigeria as a malaria endemic area, Salako estimated that 50 percent of the population had at least one episode of malaria each year while children below five years of age had two to four attacks of malaria each year.
“The disease malaria is no respecter of age, sex or tribe. People of all ages have regular attacks throughout their lives. However, young children and pregnant women are most at risk of severe malaria and death.

“Malaria also contributes to other children deaths by affecting immunity to other diseases. Successful malaria control measures could therefore result in a large reduction of deaths than that duo to malaria alone.“We must all be concerned in malaria in pregnancy, whether we are still within the child bearing age or not. It is our responsibilities to make sure that we do everything humanly possible to prevent and control the menace of malaria in our society.

Posted: at 19-05-2011 12:18 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

too bad.

Posted: at 19-05-2011 01:52 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

Mey God Help Us.........In JESUS Name _ _ _ _ _

Posted: at 19-05-2011 03:01 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

  So sad.

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Posted: at 19-05-2011 04:20 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

the number of deaths cuased by malarial is really alarming,
the nigeria rural area managenment commission need to rise up n help at this juncture
 not that they r not doing their work but we need more work to be done
 n individual also, all hand must be on deck, mosquito multiplie4s day in day cos
of untiredy areas,swamped dirty water etcs, its really too sad

Posted: at 19-05-2011 05:52 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

If Nigerian government use money seized from unscruplous politicians,
It should be enough to eradicate this disease forever.

Posted: at 19-05-2011 08:08 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

na waoooooooooh

Posted: at 19-05-2011 10:00 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

They shuld find solution 2 it pls

Posted: at 20-05-2011 07:53 AM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

@Pepesy u said "They shuld find solution 2 it pls" if i may ask what type of solution? Do u mean dis type.Building of more hospitals or health centres without drugs.They will not find any solution they know if we are well,well cloth,well fed, then we will disturb them when they want to steal d money.So they will rather lets us all die of sicknesses that do not need to kill us.

Posted: at 20-05-2011 11:00 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

Building better equipped primary health care system instead of lavishing N10 billion on some petty honeypots will improve the lot of poor women in Nigeria.

Posted: at 21-05-2011 11:58 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming