The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has warned pharmacies against dispensing anti-malaria medicines to patients without positive malaria test results from their healthcare providers.
Abayomi said this on Wednesday during the Ministry’s Annual Ministerial Press Briefing highlighting the activities and achievements of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s led administration in the health sector.
The commissioner emphasised that this was critical to ensure that patients are not treated unnecessarily and to find out the true cause of their fever.
According to him, the initiative will be strictly regulated, noting that the state is embarking on a massive malaria prevalence and elimination drive.
Abayomi affirmed that the state had made tremendous progress in its efforts to eliminate malaria with a prevalence rate of 2.6 per cent which placed the state in the category of low transmission.
He emphasised that malaria was on the declining trend, but warned that it still constituted a threat.
“The goal is to get rid of malaria in Lagos State,” he said.
According to the commissioner, Lagos is in a unique opportunity to achieve malaria pre-elimination and elimination with extremely strong political will, innovative infrastructure transformation, and human resource strategy.
Other strategies that would aid its elimination plan included digital interventions, health financing through insurance and steadfast partners in donor and private sector space.
“We are going to work with the Ministry of Environment and make sure that we are tackling the patients and the parasites.
“And that our colleagues in the environment are tackling the environment and making sure we are getting rid of the vector, the anopheles mosquito that we breed.
“If we are able to do that with our prevent, test, treat, and track, malaria is on the verge of being eliminated completely,” he said.
Abayomi appealed to residents to keep their surroundings clean, prevent trash and stagnant water from accumulating, and cut grasses around homes to prevent mosquitoes.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one person dies of malaria every minute in Africa.
WHO said in 2023, there were an estimated 263 million new malaria cases in 83 countries worldwide, up from 252 million in 2022 and 226 million in 2015.
The global total of malaria deaths reached 597,000 in 2023 compared to 578,000 in 2015.
The 2024 World Malaria Report states that out of 83 countries, Nigeria accounted for an estimated 40 per cent of malaria cases and 46 per cent of deaths within the 10 High Burden to High impact countries in 2023. (NAN)
