Nigerians Are Largest Exporters Of Malaria, Says Expert

An expert on malaria said on Friday that Nigerians were the largest exporters of the illness in view of the mobile nature of the citizens. 

Dr Luis Benavente, Director, Improving Malaria Diagnostics (IMAD), a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported organisation, said this at a training for laboratory scientists in Lagos. 

“Nigeria is the biggest exporter of malaria in the world and it can only be reduced if it is controlled in Nigeria,” Benavente said. 

He said that studies had shown that Nigerians were very entrepreneurial and travel to a lot of countries to transact businesses while carrying with them malaria parasites, thereby disseminating them wherever they go in the world. 

He added that to control malaria in the world, it had to be controlled first in Nigeria and stressed the need for competent laboratory technicians to diagnose the illness. 

Also speaking at the training, Dr Wellington Oyibo, Consultant Parasitologist, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (UNILAG), said that some clinical examinations misdiagnosed every type of fever for malaria.

He added that when most people experienced feverish feelings, they automatically thought it was malaria and treated it as such.

Oyibo warned that the intake of malaria medication for every type of illness would make the body drug-resistant and, therefore, make the illness very difficult to treat. 

He stressed the need for microscopic diagnosis which would assess the parasite and confirm if it was malaria or not.

He urged governments at all levels to provide funding for training of microscopists and provide adequate microscopes in hospital laboratories to help in proper diagnosis of malaria thereby reducing the scourge in Nigeria and the world at large. 

About 25 laboratory scientists from six states of the federation participated in the training sponsored by Malaria Action Programme for States (MAPS) in collaboration with UNILAG College of Medicine, WHO and Kenya -based African Malaria Research Foundation.