Report published by Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) on Tuesday indicates that over 50 million Nigerians are currently suffering from malaria. The report blamed this alarming figure to the prevalence of mosquito resistance to insecticide nets particularly in 18 states of the federation.
The report listed the most affected states to include Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Benue, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau, Anambra, Enugu, Rivers, Ondo, Osun, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and Niger.
Presenting the report, the Deputy Director and Head of Public Health Department, Sam Awolola stated that the possibility of more deaths being recorded in the most affected areas cannot be ruled out. He attributed the worrisome resistance of mosquito to treated nets to use of same chemical.
According to him "one of the major factors that contributed to insecticide resistance is the use of same reagents for agriculture globally. Most of the insecticides, used in public health are also used in agriculture, which is a major source of resistance.”
While advocating the need for the government to consider non chemical based control measure to stem the rising cases, Awolola appealed to relevant government agencies to empower NIMR to arrest the situation.
"There is need to explore alternative non-chemical base control measures. Government should support a large scale operational research on deployment and use of PBO-LLINs in insecticide-resistance hot spot areas. It should also commission NIMR as a hub for vector surveillance and insecticide resistance mapping in Nigeria to explore the use of alternative mosquito control measures such as the “Sterile Insect techniques” and “genetic modified mosquito” for malaria control in Nigeria."
