The Management of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile Ife, on Tuesday 25th April 2023, joined the rest of the world to mark World Malaria Day. The event included free malaria tests, free ACT drugs administration, and a health talk, with a community engagement on the 26th of April. The theme for the day was Strengthening Capacity of Primary Health Care Providers in the Management of Uncomplicated Malaria.
In his welcome address, the Head of the Family Medicine Department, OAUTHC, Ile Ife, Dr. Ibrahim Bello, lamented that malaria remains the leading cause of preventable illnesses and deaths worldwide. He explained that over 3.3 billion people in 106 countries are at risk of contracting the disease annually. The mortality rate is over 500,000 – primarily amongst children under age five.
Paying more attention to pregnant women and children under age five in their separate lectures, the resource persons – Dr. Sylvester Edward, Dr. Olumide Adeniyi, and Mrs. Florence Aina – disclosed that malaria and its deaths could be reduced and ultimately prevented if treated early. The resource persons cautioned that severe malaria during pregnancy could cause miscarriages, anaemia, maternal death, growth restrictions, and low birth weight.
However, they called on political and community leaders to intensify their efforts to eradicate malaria, especially in rural areas. The speakers also charged Nigerians to make their environment clean, get rid of heaps of rubbish and stagnant water around their surroundings, and sleep under treated mosquito nets to get rid of malaria and its causative agent.
In expanding the scope of the awareness, the department took to the Ile-Ife community to reach out to those in rural areas with a particular focus on the Odemuyiwa Rural community, where residents were counseled on how to eradicate malaria and its symptoms.
Taking practical steps to underscore the seriousness of eradicating malaria in Nigeria, different anti-malaria items were distributed to the residents and free medical testing was done.
