Global General
Malaria kills 300,000 kids every year in Nigeria
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-26 19:21
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ABUJA: An estimated 300,000 children die of malaria every year in Nigeria, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Paula Fedeski, UNICEF's chief communication officer disclosed this in a statement sent to reporters in Abuja on Sunday.
Malaria remains a major public health problem in Nigeria, the statement said, noting that an estimated 300,000 children die of the disease each year.
According to the international body, up to 11 percent of maternal mortality is caused by malaria, which represents one in every four deaths of children and one in 10 deaths of pregnant women.
UNICEF said about US$900 million is lost to malaria annually in prevention and treatment costs and productivity loss.
"It is not difficult to see that in addition to its direct health impact, the disease imposes a heavy social and economic burden," the statement said, adding that malaria still remained the number one killer of children and thousand of adults in the country.
The international organization hoped that the Nigerian government and its roll back malaria partners would now be able to prevent the death of thousands of children under five years old.
According to the body, in order to address the problem, one of its strategies was to distribute 63 million long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets (LLIN) to 32 million households in Nigeria.
It said eleven states had already received 19 million nets in a first phase and about 46 million more nets would be distributed by the end of this year.
The statement urged Nigerians to make sure everyone in their household has an LLIN to sleep under and sleeps under it every night.
"Encourage all the pregnant women you know to seek antenatal care and ask about anti-malaria treatment. You might help save a life," the statement said.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by a eukaryotic protist of the genus Plasmodium.
