8 hours Ago By Janet Ogundepo
Janet Ogundepo Malaria researchers have warned that funding cuts from international aid could reverse the progress Nigeria has made so far to meet the 2030 malaria elimination target if local funding is not prioritised. They noted that although improved public awareness, control efforts, and access to effective treatment had reduced malaria prevalence in under-five children from 42 per cent in 2010 to 22 per cent in 2021, sustaining these gains would require dedicated and sufficient local funding. The experts also decried the lack of dedicated internal funding for malaria research and control, urging the government to prioritise and provide adequate funds to tackle the disease.
Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise in commemoration of the 2025 World Malaria Day, the seasoned researchers further urged the government to subsidise antimalarial drugs, intensify public education campaigns, and support research to track the disease burden and evaluate current interventions. WMD is commemorated on April 25 every year to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment to malaria prevention and control. The theme for this year is “Malaria Ends with Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite.
” Malaria is endemic in Nigeria. The World Health Organisation says Nigeria has the highest burden of malaria globally, accounting for nearly 27 per cent with an estimated 68 million cases and 194, 000 deaths due to the disease. The global health body noted the African Region also bears a worrisome figure of the global disease burden with an estimated 95 per cent of the malaria burden each year.
WHO lamented that despite significant gains, malaria remained a major public health challenge, with nearly 600,000 lives lost to the disease on the continent in 2023 alone. In a statement for World Malaria Day, the WHO warned that the 2025 funding cuts could further derail progress in many endemic countries, putting millions of additional lives at risk. According to the WHO, the funding cuts are currently causing moderate to severe disruptions to malaria services in over 30 malaria-endemic countries.
Providing insight into the matter, the Head of the Drug and Genetic Research unit at the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, Ibadan, Oyo State, Prof Olusegun Ademowo, stated that concerted action against malaria had helped to reduce the burden in the country. He noted that these actions were made possible through local and global funding and research grants. The don, however, noted that the funding cuts could affect the furtherance of existing projects, noting that this could be cushioned through government, stakeholders, private funders, and company intervention.
Ademowo further stated that a lack of intervention from the government could affect the progress made in malaria control in the country. The professor of Biochemical Pharmacology at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, said, “If the government does not do anything, it is definitely going to affect the gains, but it will not take us back to where we are coming from, because we’ve improved to a certain level that there’s a level that we cannot fall below anymore. “People already have some education.
Now they know that if they become febrile, they can be treated for malaria. They now know that they don’t have to use chloroquine. They know that they have to take Artemisinin-based combination therapies like Coatem and so they will continue to take those drugs.
” The researcher on Malaria pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of resistance emphasised the need for government intervention in addressing the country’s malaria burden, stressing the need to acknowledge and respond to the decline in foreign aid. “What I think we must do, number one, is that the government must take the bull by the horns,” the pharmacologist said. He explained that reductions in aid from the United States and other international donors would impact malaria control efforts, noting that donor agencies operate in interconnected networks.
Speaking on what should be done, Ademowo urged the government to commit resources towards malaria control, particularly in the areas of education and drug subsidy. He further stressed the need for research to evaluate the true burden of malaria in Nigeria and to assess the effectiveness of current interventions. The don added, “The government should also commission some people to do research on what exactly is the burden of malaria in Nigeria and how are these measures working.
So that we know which ones to intensify and we know which ones that we need to maybe downplay.” He further advocated the reinforcement of preventive strategies such as the distribution of bed nets, the use of indoor sprays, and window nets, and proper sanitation practices, especially in rural areas. The researcher in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases urged the government to ensure hospitals are equipped with the necessary tools for malaria diagnosis and treatment.
In an exclusive interview with PUNCH Healthwise, an NDDC Professorial Chair of Malaria Elimination and Phytomedicine research, Prof Chijioke Nwauche, emphasised the need for adequate local funding for malaria research, control and elimination programmes in the country. He asserted that increased local funding for malaria would prevent a drawback of the achievements when international aid is withdrawn. The don, however, noted that the burden of malaria in the country had dropped from about 40 per cent recorded in the previous decade to about 22 per cent in under five children in 2021.
(42 per cent in 2010 to 27 per cent in 2015) The professor of Immunohaematolgy and Stem Cell Medicine at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said, “What we’ve had, in-country, is that malaria is considered as an afterthought. It hasn’t been on the front burner as to be an urgent national emergency. For example, for us in the research segment, we have to scramble with every other person and other competing interests to get research funds from TETFund and it’s not proper.
” The researcher on Malaria’s Impact on Pregnant women and under-five children, further decried researchers’ constant search and dependence on funds from agencies and international organisations, advocating that a third of funding from TETFund should be allocated to malaria research albeit for a significant specified period of dedicated national thrust to control and eliminate malaria in Nigeria. Nwauche said the Federal government should declare an emergency in the control and elimination of malaria in Nigeria. In this regard, he said, “TETFund should be supported to initiate a special intervention fund to support an enhanced intervention to ensure malaria elimination.
“So even if the external funding from USAID is not coming, if we are properly funded, that should not constitute any serious impediment to our efforts. That impact is there because our funding structure is very weak. International agencies focus on project-specific funding, which may not speak to our national realities and priorities.
” He further emphasised the need for more malaria research for children under the age of five and pregnant women, advocating the set-up of measures to monitor antimalaria use and its impact. The haematologist asserted that malaria needed to be focused on because it affects the workforce and economic output of adults, affects cognitive development in children and is a great threat to pregnant women. “We need to take malaria more seriously.
The business community needs to do much more. The federal government through TETFund is trying but state and local governments need to do more. At the local government level is where the action should be because the LG has two per cent dedicated for direct funding from the federation account.
But how much of that goes to malaria? “There needs to be a rethinking of malaria across the board. Malaria needs to come to the front burner,” he said. Nwauche called for collaboration between malaria researchers, caregivers, professionals, funders and individuals in the malaria-related industries to ensure synergy and bridge existing gaps.
Proffering solutions, the former Director of the Centre for Malaria Research and Phytomedicine at UNIPORT added, “We can do something, certainly, but you have to first put on a thinking cap, put the right people at the right place. And without even going to the US, we can handle it. Nigeria is not a poor country, with what is here, we can manage it and get something done.
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