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Nigeria: Saraki Calls for Action on Malaria
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This Day (Lagos)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Lagos
Founder of the WellBeing Foundation (WBF), and wife of Kwara State governor, Mrs Toyin Saraki, has called on governments at all levels to channel more resources to the fight against malaria, noting that much impact has not been made in this area in the past 30 years.
Saraki, who said this in Ilorin, in a statement to mark the World Malaria Day, decried the steady rise of malaria cases all over the country and the helplessness of the people to fight the disease. According to her, the number of malaria-related deaths especially in women and very young children in Nigeria has remained very high and everyone is at risk. She said malaria was responsible for 60 per cent out-patient visits to health facilities in Nigeria, 30 per cent childhood deaths, while 25 per cent of deaths include children under one year and 11 per cent maternal deaths are malaria related.
On the impact of malaria on maternal and infant wellbeing, she said, "malaria remains one of the leading causes of maternal and neo-natal deaths in Nigeria. Nigerian children usually become sick as a result of malaria between two and four times in a year, and 70 per cent of pregnant women suffer from malaria, which contributes to maternal anaemia, low birth weight, still births, abortion and other pregnancy-related complications.
"We can not be serious about the determination to attain the Millennium Development Goals if we don't take this issue seriously. We can not afford to continue to lose so many of our people and children to malaria and other avoidable ailments," Mrs Saraki said.
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