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Leprosy, Malaria, HIV/AIDS in Nigeria
SALISU NA’INNA DAMBATTA
THERE are
currently 394 children among the new 4,799 cases of leprosy detected by agents
of the Federal Ministry of Health. There is an incidence of 250,000 cases of all
forms of Tuberculosis (TB) in the country. And 3.5 million Nigerians aged 15-49
years have been infected by HIV/AIDS. Sixty per cent of people visiting health
institutions in Nigeria do so because of malaria.
Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo
Lambo, revealed these factual figures in a grim statistics on September 7, 2004,
during this year’s ministerial press briefing.
But he listed steps, measures and action
taken to improve the health situation in the country as part of the many-sided
efforts of the government to improve the general well-being of each citizen.
"The country has done well in leprosy
control," he told a hall packed with health personnel from all corners of
Nigeria and abroad, as well as a collection of attentive journalists
representing the vibrant Nigerian media. He went on to justify the good news on
the battle against leprosy. "At the end of December 2003, prevalence of leprosy
was 5,243, a prevalence rate of 0.4 in 10,000 population in contrast to 250,000
and 27 in 10,000 population, respectively in the year 1989. World Health
Organisation (WHO) leprosy target that Nigeria attained in 1998 is still being
maintained."
Despite the significant drop in the
prevalence rate of leprosy, which mostly afflicts the rural poor of this
country, the minister shows his patriotic side when he frankly lamented that
"the transmission (of the disease) is going on and the patients are detected
late. There are still many cases in some states like Cross River, Jigawa, Ebonyi,
Kano, Adamawa, Edo, Enugu and Benue." The minister was a bit upbeat when he
announced the result of the government’s war on leprosy, "the cumulative number
of patients cured in the country is 96,415."
On Malaria, the Honourable Minister
confessed that the killer-disease "still constitutes a serious public health
problem in Nigeria." He backed this assertion with authentic data, which shows
that 60 per cent of outpatients in health facilities go there in search of cure
for malaria and, that the disease is responsible for "30 per cent of childhood
deaths, 25 per cent of deaths in children under one year and 11 per cent of
maternal deaths."
The minister said the federal government,
in conjunction with international donors, is working hard to roll back malaria,
with a multi-action initiative in progress throughout the country. One of the
tangible actions in the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative was that "a total of
992,000 Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) (were) allocated and distributed to 36
states plus FCT as seed stock." Professor Lambo said that the Federal Ministry
of Health also delivered 10 drums of Deltamethrin insecticide to each state of
the Federation for residual spraying.
Under the Roll Back Malaria initiative,
the Kogi State-born former University of Ibadan don said that the ministry
adopted "Pre-Packaged Drugs (PPDs) as a strategy for effective case management
and the involvement of the private sector in the production and distribution of
the PPDs for easy access."
But a major impediment in the treatment of
malaria is the fact that "resistance to chloroquine is high and increasing,"
according to the minister. What is the way out? "It has been agreed," he said,
with a triumphant smile, "that there is a need to change the current first and
second line antimalarial drugs. Artemether/Lumenfantrine and Artesunate/Amodiaquine
were recommended as candidate drugs for studies as a vital step in updating the
antimalarial drug policy."
Nigerians are waiting for the result of
the tests with anticipation especially it is now known, thanks to the Honourable
Minister, that "the financial loss due to malaria annually is estimated to be
about N132 billion in form of treatment cost, prevention, loss of man/hour etc."
Turning to HIV/AIDS, Professor Eyitayo
Lambo disclosed that a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million Nigerians have
died of the disease between 1986 when the first case was seen and the year 2002.
"One third of people living with HIV/AIDS are co-infected with tuberculosis
while more than 19.1 per cent of people with tuberculosis disease are
co-infected with HIV," the minister revealed.
"AIDS-related deaths accounted for over 30
per cent mortality in adults aged 15 to 49. This could increase to 50 per cent
by the year 2005," the minister explained.
The government did not fold its arms in
the face of the rampaging effect of HIV/AIDS on the society and some progress
has been made over the past year, according to Professor Eyitayo Lambo. He said
that President Obasanjo has directed that 100 new outlets for subsidised
Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs be opened in the country.
Other measures on HIV/AIDS include a plan
to manufacture ARV drugs locally in abundance, the setting up of 106 blood
screening centres, the training of about 2000 medical laboratory scientists and
the supply of ELISA equipment. "We have established 11 Prevention of
Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) centres in the country with plan to
scale-up to secondary health facilities in each state," he concluded his reports
on HIV/AIDS.
Measures taken by the government to tackle
guinea worm, another disease that cripples its victims include "case
surveillance, case detection and management, health education and public
enlightenment; advocacy and community mobilisation; vector control, water
filtration and provision of potable water as well as rehabilitation of broken
down sources (of potable water)". The minister elaborated on the effort against
guinea worm "At the inception of our Guinea Worm Eradication Programme, 653,620
guinea worm cases were recorded from 5,879 villages across Nigeria. My
Ministry’s efforts at guinea worm eradication have been remarkable. As at
December 31, 2003, only 1,459 cases of guinea worm were reported from 280
villages throughout the country. This is a reduction of 99.78 per cent in the
number of cases reported and 95.24 per cent in the number of villages affected
throughout Nigeria since 1998."
The minister touched on the activities of
NAFDAC, the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research & Development and the
Nigerian Institute of Medical Research; covered issues related to immunisation;
spoke about intended local production of yellow fever vaccine, tertiary hospital
services in the country and a lot more. However, not everything can be
accommodated in this short article.
•Dambatta is an Assistant Director (Information) in the
Presidency.
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