Last Updated on November 17, 2022 by admin
Malaria is a life-threatening disease that can be both prevented and treated which can dramatically reduce the burden of disease in the globe. There are about 3.2 billion people around the world at risk of infection, approximately half of the total world population, and about half a million people died in 2019 worldwide due to malaria infection.
Malaria disease is caused by parasites that are spread by mosquitoes. The anopheles mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasites that cause malaria in humans. In adults, its common symptoms are headaches, weakness, fever, aches and pains, high body temperature (chills and rigors) and bitterness of the mouth (and loss of appetite) while in children, in addition to the above-mentioned symptoms, it may also manifests in more than normal sleeping, nausea and vomiting. It is a serious disease affecting children and adults but it consequences are graver among children and pregnant women.
More than one-third of global malaria deaths are occurring only in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo and second leading cause of children mortality under the age of 5 years is malaria after HIV/AIDS.
The direct economic impact on people of Nigeria has shown that economic growth penalty, between 1980 and 1995, regarding adjusted purchasing power parity (PPP), to be 156 US dollars loss per person.
Nigeria’s national expenditure on health is very low with about only 5% allocated to health sector which highly affecting the impact of socio-economic level on people according to the poorly expected health outcome.
For 2020, the health sector received a capital spending allocation of N46 billion which was just N2 billion lesser than the country’s allocation for education, it was a N4.15 billion lesser than the capital expenditure allocation for health in 2019 which was N50.15 billion.
For 2020, a total of N44.5 billion is expected to be allocated under the fund and this represents just about 8% of statutory transfers of which the national assembly received the biggest share of 22.5% (N125 billion) and the judiciary received N110 billion (about 20%) of the statutory transfers.
It is also worthy to note that the allocation for 2020 was lower than allocated sum of N51.22 billion for 2019.
Out of the nearly N91 billion capital allocation for the health ministry, N44.5 billion is for the BHCPF, leaving N46.5 billion for other activities. According to the list of the major capital expenditures reflected in the budget, a significant proportion is for the prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases.
A comparison of incomes in a malarial versus non-malarial countries shows that income is five times higher in non-malarial countries. Where malaria infection flourishes, poverty and poor health outcome exist. Malaria-endemic countries like Nigeria have an impeding economic growth and development by both direct and indirect way such as productivity, healthcare cost, and infant mortality.
This destruction (in)directly affects the economy of the locale that it is prevalent, example Nigeria. With various medications aimed at treating this scourge, locales have tried using herbs such as quinine and other things to treat such, but as they have tried,
The plasmodium, which is the parasite that causes malaria has been resistant to malaria over the years making the disease a nightmare for scientist and governments in the countries that the disease is rampant. But, with the advancement in the medical world, drugs like Coatal Forte Soft Gel and others have shown promise in the eradication of this scourge.
