… Says parasite now resists drugs
Civil Society Organisation in Niger state under the auspices of Civil Society Working on Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN) has called on Government agencies to allocate and release funds for Malaria intervention.
While calling on Government agencies to scale up community centered initiatives in their activities, the Niger state Coordinator of ACOMIN, Kalejaiye Olasunkanmi said in the fight against malaria ACOMIN was able to improve the malaria service delivery and awareness.
Olasunkanmi told Journalists at a press briefing in Minna that the challenges confronting malaria intervention are increased difficulty in accessing hard to reach communities.
According to him “it is no longer news that Nigeria still has a long way to go to achieving control of this deadly disease, due to certain challenges confronting malaria intervention.
“Our major challenges are that due to insecurity affecting many parts of the country have made it difficult for us to access hard to reach communities and also drug resistance by the malaria parasites, these parasites have developed resistance to drugs and we must device means to tackle them”.
Speaking also, the State Program Officer, ACOMIN, Solomon Oladimeji hinted that with the effort of the ACOMIN, over 80 percent of local government areas now have a budget for malaria but call for the release of funds.
He added that, there is the need for the state government to provide sufficient beddings and mattresses including medical equipment for Primary Health Care centers.
