Combating Malaria Crisis

The best way and manner to fight a problem is to first acknowledge its presence and prevalence, then consistently see it as a barrier to your foreseen success story.

The prevalence of the malaria disease across Nigeria, and the Sub-Saharan Africa in general, has continued to pose a conspicuous ubiquitous challenge among the citizenry.

This is the reason it doesn’t deserve to be treated with kid’s glove. To tactically tackle a societal problem, you must first understand its features and tactics. Hence, Malaria isn’t an exception. This is why we must take time to analyze the nitty-gritty surrounding the disease before delving into the needed remedy.

Malaria remains a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by a group of single-celled parasitic micro-organisms known as protozoa belonging to the genus plasmodium. The disease is solely transmitted by mosquito bites, and the symptoms often commence few days after the bite.

This implies that the people who have hitherto been seeing other factors as sources of malaria are required to have a rethink. More so, it’s worth noting that it is only – or most commonly – a female Anopheles mosquito that bears and transmits plasmodium, which remains the only parasite that causes malaria. And this very specie could be widely found in Nigeria and the Sub-Saharan Africa in general.

The mosquito bite introduces the parasite from the mosquito’s saliva into a person’s bloodstream. The parasites then travel to the liver where they mature and reproduce. The signs and symptoms of malaria typically begin eight to twenty-five days following infection.

Nevertheless, symptoms may occur later in those who have taken anti-malarial medications in the past as prevention. The initial manifestations of the disease, which is common to all malaria species, are similar to flu-like symptoms and can resemble other conditions such as septicemia, gastroenteritis and viral diseases.

The presentation may include headache, fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, haemolytic anaemia, jaundice, haemoglobin in the urine, retinal damage, and convulsions.

The classic symptom of malaria is paroxysm – a cyclical occurrence of sudden coldness followed by shivering and then fever and sweating; occurring every two days in P. Vivax and P. Malariae infection. Severe malaria, which might lead to death, is usually caused by P. Falciparum – often referred to as ‘Falciparum Malaria’.

Its symptoms arise nine to thirty days after contracting the infection. Individuals with cerebral malaria frequently exhibit neurological symptoms including abnormal posturing, nystagmus, conjugate gaze palsy i.e. failure of the eyes to turn together in the same direction, opisthotonos, seizure, or coma.

It is worthy to note that, concurrent infection of diseases like HIV with malaria increases mortality rate. Malaria in pregnant women is the major cause of stillbirths, infant mortality, abortion and low birth weight, particularly in P. Falciparum infection. Symptoms of malaria can recur after varying symptom-free periods.

Depending upon the cause, recurrence can be classified as either recrudescence or relapse. Recrudescence is when symptoms return after a symptom-free period; it is caused by parasites living in the blood as a result of inadequate or ineffective treatment.

Whilst, relapse is when symptoms reappear after the parasites have been eliminated from blood but persist as dormant hypnozoites in liver cells; relapse commonly occurs between eight to twenty-four weeks and is common among P. Vivax and P. Ovale infections.

The primary sources of mosquitoes include sewage, refuse, dirty stagnant water, and untidy environment. In most cases, mosquitoes are peculiar to damp and dirty environments or substances such as gutter, pool, faeces, and urine, among other solid and liquid waste materials.

This is why residents of untidy localities are at a high risk of contracting malaria. Methods used to prevent malaria include medications, mosquito elimination through fumigation coupled with regular environmental sanitation, as well as prevention of mosquito bites via regular cum proper use of the mosquito nets, among others.

Prevention of malaria, which is yet to have a vaccine, may be more cost-effective than treatment of the disease in the long run; though the initial measures required are out of reach of many of the world’s poorest people.

Microscopy is the most commonly used method to detect the malaria parasite in the body. In spite of its widespread usage, diagnosis by microscopy suffers from two main

Prevention of malaria, which is yet to have a vaccine, may be more cost-effective than treatment of the disease

drawbacks: many settings especially rural are not equipped to perform the test, and the accuracy of the results depends on both the skill of the lab technician and the levels of the parasite in the blood.

It is obvious that malaria is a killer disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2010 alone, there were about 219 million cases of malaria outbreak resulting 660,000 deaths.

The majority of cases, about 65%, occur in children under fifteen years. Research equally reveals that about 125 million pregnant women are at risk of infection each year.

In Sub-Saharan Africa such as Nigeria, Angola, Chad, Congo, Benin, Ghana and several others, maternal malaria is associated with up to 200,000 estimated infant deaths yearly.

In a nutshell; globally, about 3.3 billion individuals in 106 countries are at risk of malaria, mostly among African children. Due to the widespread of malaria infection and its deadly consequence, the WHO thought it wise to proclaim World Malaria Day.

In view of this, in May 2007 during the 60th session of the World Health Assembly, April 25 of every year was unanimously adopted as the day for the event.

The day was established to provide education and thorough understanding of malaria disease across the globe, especially in countries where the disease seems to be endemic.

At such a critical time like this, I urge every individual in the country regardless of age or status, to be extremely conscious of the outlook of his/her surroundings or immediate environment since malaria is mainly attributed to unhealthy vicinity.

Thus, we should always endeavor to properly dispose any form of waste found within our place of residence as well as thoroughly sanitize our gutters and toilets at all times. In addition, we ought to ensure that our beds are always covered with treated mosquito net whenever we lie in it.

Among all, we ought to endeavor to see our physician from time-to-time or whenever we notice any abnormality in our body system, for onward review of our health status.

In the same vein, the various health workers/personnel across the country are expected to contribute meaningfully and immensely in creation of awareness regarding the causes and possible effects of malaria disease as well as its epidemic.

Most importantly, everyone must take into cognizance that prevention is arguably far better than cure. We need to fight to end the disease now before it ends us. Think about it!