•Experts counsel on how to avoid disease, as medicine dealers celebrate World Malaria Day
BY GILBERT EKEZIE
Recently, members of the Lagos State Medicine Dealers Association (LSMDA) and other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry converged on Lagos for this year’s edition of the World Malaria Day.
The event did not only give the medicine dealers the opportunity to meet one on one with the suppliers and manufacturers of the products they were selling, it was also an opportunity for them to buy some drugs at cheaper rates. The manufacturers also smiled home with huge cash from immediate sales.
Among the pharmaceutical companies that attended the event with their products were Jawa pharmaceuticals, EMZOR, Philips, GSK, and Seagreen Pharmaceuticals. Agencies and experts were invited to create awareness through paper presentations on how to prevent malaria.
In his remarks, President of Lagos State Medicine Dealers Association (LSMDA), Chief Kevinson Chukwuemeka Okpara said LSMDA was a corporate entity whose area of operation included providing quality, genuine and affordable drugs to the society. He explained that the celebration became necessary as his association could not continue to lag behind at the yearly World Malaria day celebration, especially as malaria constituted immediate danger to the society.
He noted that members of his association could not fold their arms and watch malaria claim more lives of Nigerians. “Our interest in joining the fight against malaria is because it is a dangerous disease to all,” he stated.
Okpara noted that his members were strategically located in the rural areas as well as in the various communities and towns in Lagos. He said since they rendered great services to the people, he implored donor agencies and pharmaceutical companies to partner with LSMDA in terms of training, provision of affordable and subsidized anti-malaria drugs and other relevant tools needed to fight and win the war against malaria.
Okpara promised that LSMDA would organise the World Malaria Day more elaborately with community outreach, rallies, conferences at schools and workshops in the years ahead.
He therefore advised the people to maintain a clean environment in order to be safe from malaria attacks.
General Secretary of LSMDA, Comrade Olua Uwandu described the World Malaria Day as a time to reflect on the dangers and cure of malaria, pointing out that the disease had caused so many deaths all over the world.
He said LSMDA members had always been attending series of programmes organised by other organisations on World Malaria Day, but decided to embark on their own this year.
“We decided to mark the programme for the first time this year, and it is a good beginning, Henceforth, we hope to make it an annual event,” he stated.
Uwandu advised the people to shun self-medication and that they should not pick malaria drugs at any shop lacking a rapid diagnosis test machine.
“It is now a policy that before you pick any malaria drug from a shop, ensure that you have malaria, because it is not all fever that is malaria. We have a challenge of resistance of malaria which the medical experts are fighting through the resistance test machine which is found in almost every recognised medicine shop,” he said.
Uwandu further explained that for resistance to be overcome, people should take the recommended drugs as at when due.
In a paper titled; Malaria Case Management: Increasing Malaria Rapid-Diagnostic Test (MRDT) in the Private Sector, Mr Leslie Emegbuonye of ClintonHealth Access Initiative explained that Malaria is an infectious disease caused by at least five protozoan parasites which are transmitted by female anopheles mosquitoes. He told the crowd that Nigeria bears over a quarter of the world’s malaria burden, with malaria prevalence of 42 per cent and an estimated 120 million cases per year, while approximately 208,000 people die through malaria annually.
He also stated that malaria is the third leading cause of Under-five years of age deaths, after pneumonia and diarrhoea diseases. He added: “Malaria accounts for 11 per cent of maternal mortality and 14 per cent of mortality in children Under-five years of age.”
According to Emegbuonye, signs and symptoms of malaria commonly presented patients with a combination of fever, chills, sweat, headache, nausea, vomiting, body aches, general malaise and loss of appetite.
Emegbuonye also explained that malaria signs and symptoms were similar to those of other viral and bacterial infections, noting that it was important to undergo tests before treatment.
“The purpose of National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP) 2014-2020 is to reduce malaria burden to pre-elimination levels and bring malaria-related mortality to zero. In 2010, WHO recommended that all malaria suspected cases should be tested before a malaria treatment is administered. Different diagnostic tests available for malaria are microscopy, antigen detection, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), molecular diagnosis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serology – indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFA).
“Fever is a common symptom of many diseases, including malaria, but sometimes patients with fever do not have malaria. Testing a fever patient with RDTs lets you know if the fever is caused by malaria or by other ailments, so that the patient can be treated correctly. Testing before treating malaria also prevents wastage due to the use of anti-malaria drugs in non-malaria cases. Testing also prevents the development of resistance to anti-malaria drug. Testing also provides differential diagnosis for other diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea,” he explained.
Mr. Darlington Dike, National President of Save Green Life Volunteered Initiative, said the dangers of malaria in the society could not be ignored, hence the widespread awareness campaign against it.
Dike explained that his organisation identified with LSMDA because of their role in caring for the community in the area of provision of drugs and promised that he would continue to do more to ensure a malaria-free society.
Gloria Odia of Jawa Pharmaceuticals also described malaria as a dangerous disease and advised Nigerians to maintain a cleaner environment and personal hygiene. “Health is wealth and your life is your wealth. The community should shun taking some things for granted to avoid exposing themselves to malaria. They should also place themselves on balanced diets that could protect their bodies from being affected by infections,” he said.
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