According to data analysis of the World Malaria Reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO), malaria claimed the lives of no less than 290,000 people between 2020 and 2022. Despite decades of efforts, it’s thought that Nigeria experiences around 66 million cases of the disease each year.
Nigeria saw 90,000 fatalities from malaria in 2020 and nearly 200,000 in 2021.
One in three malaria-related deaths worldwide, according to the 2022 WHO World Malaria Report, take place in Nigeria. This corresponds to 22 people in the country passing away from malaria every hour. Accordingly, Nigeria will represent 27% of the world’s malaria burden in 2021.
The WHO has certified a total of 41 nations and one territory as being free of malaria, with Azerbaijan and Tajikistan receiving their certification on March 30.
“Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement” is the topic chosen for this year’s celebration.
Increased efforts are needed, according to experts, to eradicate the disease in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country where malaria is spread by mosquitoes, putting 97% of the people at risk. In the South, the transmission season lasts all year round, but in the North, it only lasts three months or less.
It is a potentially fatal illness brought on by parasites that are spread to people through the bites of female anopheles mosquitoes that have the sickness.
Fever, headache, nausea, diarrhea, excessive perspiration, and anaemia are a few of the symptoms.
Meanwhile, in Kenya, more than 3.5 million people get malaria every year, according to CDC estimates. More than 10,000 Kenyans die from it every year.
New vaccine R21, whose preliminary results from early testing suggest that it is far more effective than the RTS,S vaccine—the only one currently approved for use by the WHO—offers hope for the future.
The World Health Organisation is now evaluating the R21 vaccination, and the final results of late-stage trials have not yet been published.
On April 13, Ghana became the first nation to approve its implementation. Its implementation has also been approved in Nigeria.
The first authorised malaria vaccine in the world, known as RTS,S, has already been launched by the WHO as a trial program in three African nations, including Kenya. But it’s not yet readily accessible.
Compared to the RTS,S vaccine, commercialised by GlaxoSmithKline under the name Mosquirix, which is only approximately 30% effective, the R21 vaccine has a 75% efficiency rate.
GSK spent three decades conducting research and developing the RTS,S vaccine and the WHO approved it in 2021.