30 September 2008
Lagos — World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said yesterday that malaria may impede Nigeria 's drive to realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
A statement issued by the World Bank quoted Zoellick as saying that Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo accounted for 30 per cent to 40 per cent of deaths from Malaria in Africa .
The World Bank president announced a N117 billion(1.1 billion U.S. dollars) expansion of itsmalaria-fighting programmes in Africa, with priority on Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The statement, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday, said the expansion programme was announced at the ongoing UN Special Session on the MDGs in New York .
The statement quoted Zoellick as saying that the new financial commitment would help African countries over the next three years to expand their malaria prevention, care, and treatment programmes.
"Malaria is a crushing development burden for poor people and developing countries which the World Bank is committed to fighting for as long as it takes to get it under control. "Malaria preys on the poor and keeps them poor.
Poverty prevents people from buying bed-nets toprevent malaria and medicine to cure it.
"When people are struck by the disease, parents misswork, children miss school, and malaria emergenciesplunge families into debt from which they can'trecover, " Zoellick said. Zoellick said countries such as Ethiopia , Rwanda , andZambia, were starting to see signs of progress as theyexpanded their malaria fighting programmes to getmore bed-nets per household. He said the countries also stepped up access tolow-cost, effective drugs for treating the disease. Both countries, he added, were preparing to launchmassive bed net distributions, expand treatment to therural poor, and improve the overall health system sothat the gains made through rapid control could besustained.
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