THE world, especially countries with a high burden of malaria, received the news of a candidate vaccine with high hope. The novel vaccine demonstrated an unmatched 77 per cent efficacy in trials in Africa. The vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, being developed by Oxford University, United Kingdom, is reportedly the first to attain the 75 per cent efficacy target set by the World Health Organisation.
The university is collaborating with a United States company, Novavax, in the creditable effort. The serum is to be approved within two years. A 2019 phase two trial with 450 children aged between five and 17 months in Burkina Faso, indicated that the vaccine showed 77 per cent efficacy in those administered a high jab, and 71 per cent in those who got a lower dose.
Described by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a fatal disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a type of mosquito, which feeds on humans. People infected with malaria often get sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness.
Affirming the deadly nature of the disease, UNICEF’s Executive Director, Carol Bellamy, said “Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds, and remains one of the most important threats to the health of pregnant women and their new-borns.” The National Malaria Elimination Programme, an agency of the Federal Ministry of Health, notes that malaria is responsible for about 11 per cent of pregnancy-related maternal deaths annually in Nigeria.
The November 2020 World Malaria Report recorded 229 million cases of malaria in 2019 compared to 228 million cases in 2018. Worldwide, malaria deaths stood at 409,000 in 2019 compared to 411,000 deaths in 2018. The African continent in 2019 recorded 94 per cent of malaria cases and deaths.
Both local and international efforts to tackle the disease in Nigeria have been grossly inadequate. In 2019, Nigeria topped at 23 per cent among six countries, which accounted for exactly half of the malaria deaths worldwide. The DR Congo (11 per cent), Tanzania (5.0 per cent), Burkina Faso (4.0 per cent), Mozambique (4.0 per cent) and Niger (4.0 per cent) are other malaria-prone environments. The CDC says the development of a malaria vaccine has faced several obstacles: the lack of a traditional market, few developers, and the technical complexity of developing any vaccine against a parasite.
The Roll Back Malaria Partnership was launched in 1998 to lessen the malaria burden by at least 50 per cent by 2010 using evidence-based interventions and fortification of the health delivery system. Two years after, precisely in 2000, 53 African Heads of State and Governments met in Abuja for what was then known as the Abuja Declaration to push for the ramping-up of malaria control interventions and achieve the targets by 2005. The initiatives in the country ended without achieving anything substantial. Many of the insecticide-treated nets given to Nigeria by international donors were cornered by corrupt government officials who sold them to unsuspecting members of the public.
The novel effort by the Oxford University should inspire Nigeria to explore strategies to optimise malaria prevention and treatment, including reducing cases and deaths in the country. The Federal Government noted that it would require N1.89 trillion to wipe out malaria in Nigeria by implementing the New Strategic Plan on Malaria. The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said that about N352 billion was needed for the year 2021 programme implementation on malaria. He appealed to corporate organisations, the private sector, and patriotic Nigerians to give the country a bailout to achieve its target of wiping out malaria.
Indeed, Nigeria should have gone beyond merely sinking huge funds and donations into fighting severe diseases without corresponding and tangible actions. This also manifests in its handling of neglected tropical diseases. It has been the trademark rhetoric and no results. But several countries have won the fight against malaria, which is preventable and treatable. Nigeria has no legitimate reason to shamelessly hold the current record of contributing to the highest level of the malaria burden globally. The country’s health policymakers need to rethink strategies away from the routine to overturn the rot in the health sector at both the state and national levels. Money on its own does not provide solutions to problems. It needs to be used with feasible, genuine, and transparent approaches.
Countries that have achieved at least three consecutive years of zero indigenous cases are eligible to apply for a WHO certification of malaria-free status. Many countries have attained the status, including the Central American country, El Salvador, declared malaria-free in February. The WHO declared it free after over three years without a single reported case. El Salvador is the first country in Central America to attain the coveted status. Disturbingly, only four out of the 47 countries making the WHO Africa region have conquered malaria. These are Algeria, Mauritius, Lesotho, and Seychelles.
The twin-crisis of poverty and illiteracy should be seriously addressed. An estimated 65 per cent of Nigeria’s population lives in poverty and poverty is a major factor in malaria prevention and treatment. The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research can no longer appear unmoved when scientists elsewhere are working relentlessly to find solutions to deadly diseases. The institute was established to, inter alia, improve public health and national development, including collaborating with several institutions nationally and internationally to facilitate an enabling environment for medical research. It should endeavour to live up to its name by facilitating local vaccines for diseases.
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