Rotary Nigeria wages war against malaria

As the world prepares to stem the tide of malaria scourge, Rotary District 9110 Nigeria has reechoed its commitment to fight malaria to a zero level.
A public health specialist and chairman, Malaria Elimination Committee in charge of Lagos and Ogun states, Dr. Dele Balogun, made this known during a chat with the media in preparation for the 2017 World Malaria Day, which is commemorated every April 25 annually, as set aside by the World Health Organisation to find a lasting solution to the deaths caused by malaria globally. The occasion is to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control.
According to Dr. Balogun, Rotary is out to educate and sensitize millions of Nigerians resident in Lagos and Ogun states on the need to collectively wage war against this enemy of the human race called Malaria, which has been one of the greatest adversaries of humanity from time immemorial. It has killed millions of people across the world, with larger chunk of deaths from underdeveloped countries. In 2015, 95 countries and territories had ongoing malaria transmission and an estimated 3.2 billion people, nearly half the world’s population, were at risk of malaria.
“Over the years we have laid a lot of emphasis on bringing to the fore the scourge of malaria. Malaria has been a disaster. In the 1950s, the world health Organisation had programmes that brought to the fore, the opportunities to eliminate malaria in the world.
“The programme succeeded fairly but failed. But over the years malaria has continued to kill children, pregnant women and has disturbed so many people all over the world.”
He added that Rotarians are striving to drastically reduce the number of deaths. “We as Rotarians with the help of the rotary foundation have made consistent efforts at educating the people and the government on how best to stop this wasting of lives because malaria is a preventable disease.
“It is a disease that can be treated and it means it is quite possible for us to totally eliminate malaria in the world. We believe in the support of the different ministries, health and education and agriculture, we can put together a programme that can go a long way to stop these wastages of lives.
“About 40% of the deaths come from Nigeria and Congo Democratic Republic, meaning if we in Nigeria can do our own part, many people will survive and live. Once again it is another opportunity to draw the attention of the world to this malaria scourge.”
In his words, this year’s commemoration of the World Malaria Day is a continuation of what the Rotary through the rotary foundation has been doing through a grant put together to create opportunities to educate the people and lay emphasis on the fact that without mosquitoes, there can be no transmission of malaria. He said It is an opportunity for the NGO to reintroduce the long lasting special insecticide treated nets, which prevent mosquitoes from biting people. “Mosquitoes will preferably bite at night especially the mosquitoes that transmit malaria. It is important that we also use this opportunity to educate the people that there are drugs that can treat malaria”, He said.
“I want the people to know that without eliminating malaria, poverty will remain with us. This commemoration is another opportunity for people to know that if mosquitoes are not allowed to breath and are not allowed to bite there can never be malaria.”
“Malaria kills children, especially those below 5 years of age. Malaria kills pregnant women. Malaria kills people living with HIV/AIDS. Malaria kills people with low immunity especially those who come from areas where they don’t have malaria who now come into the malaria belt. So it is very important to know now that malaria is a preventable disease and rotary along many other NGOs and the governments have put together plans to make it a reality that malaria is totally eliminated,” he added.