Malaria, that ever-present but deadly disease, has always been with us since time immemorial. For the very long time it has been with us, it has been a silent killer. Every year, many people contract the disease and most of them get relieved, sometimes by just taking over-the-counter drugs.
For others, it gets complicated; leading to hospitalisation and eventually, death. However, the mortality potential of malaria is obscured by the number of people dying from it vis-à-vis the number surviving.
In Sokoto State for example, ‘malaria-phobia’ has forced us to be crying out to the government to help us in combating the unprecedented spread of mosquitoes in recent times. This it can do through the spray of Larvicides directly on water to kill mosquito larvae and Adulticides to kill adult mosquitoes.
Unfortunately, it is not likely that the government has responded. It is important to mention though, that the State Governor recently in a BBC phone-in programme said that his government had carried out sprays and was distributing anti-malarial drugs for free.
This piece, although not refuting the claims of the Governor, wishes to bring to the notice of His Excellency that neither has been done in many areas in the metropolis, not to talk of the rural areas of the state. The only time we witnessed any spray was the one sponsored by Senator Wamakko. We therefore request His Excellency the Governor to follow up on his directive to the relevant agency to enforce compliance.
What is terrifying about this year’s mosquitoes is that they are of different species; hence, the malaria parasite is resistant to all the popular anti-malarial drugs. Because of its resistance, patients continuously relapse a day or two after every cycle of treatment.
I have personally treated malaria five times in two months and I know a lot of people with similar experiences. The consequence is that many have lost confidence in the hospitals and are resorting to alternative therapy, including body-steaming.
The big question is: why are we into this? And the obvious answer is that successive governments in Nigeria have consistently neglected quality education as a result of which our talented scientists have lost the capacity to carry out ground-breaking researches and come up with novel innovations, such as anti-malarial drugs that work for us.
It is disgraceful that 60 years after independence, except for methylated spirit, mild analgesics and Alabukun powder, Nigeria depends solely on India for almost all our medicines.
It is true that India has lots of mosquitoes as we do – for two weeks I could hardly sleep while in Chennai – but many factors such as the breeding environment, blood chemistry, food type, etc. may render some of India’s anti-malarial drugs ineffective in Nigeria.
This is why we need responsible and ethical research leading to the development of local efficacious drugs for some of our common illnesses.
Our governments, universities, research centres, international intervention programmes and our scholars should urgently focus about that, please!