How to end malaria in Nigeria, by experts

AS part of preparation to mark this year’s World Malaria Day and ensure that a lasting onslaught is launched against the disease in Nigeria, stakeholders in the medical industry have said that only a collaborative effort would end the menace in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, scientists have explained why African-American men in general are at higher risk of prostate cancer and death from the disease.

The experts including members of the World Health Organisation, Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria, Novo Health Africa, Medical Directors from various hospitals across the country and key stakeholders said that Nigeria would make the world saver if the fights against malaria were intensified.

In series of lectures delivered at the event in Lagos, the professionals stressed the need to promote preventive interventions through the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets in homes, adherence to best practices in management of malaria by medical practitioners and quality assurance algorithm for service delivery.

Speaking at the forum, the organiser, who is also the Managing Director Novo Health Africa, Dr. Dorothy Jeff-Nnamani called on stakeholders to support the struggle against malaria with a focus on addressing the Nigeria challenge.

“We are using this platform to call on all stakeholders that there is something everyone of us can do to be committed to the fight against malaria, it is not left for international organisations only,” Jeff-Nnamani said.

She stated that Nigeria and the rest of the world have lost huge resources to malaria cases but that there are still much to do in order to eliminate the syndrome.

She bewailed that there are cases of malaria, which are yet to me properly understood among practitioners, stressing that until proper diagnosis and treatment is made malaria may not be treated very well.

Jeff-Nnnamani, who said that every Nigerian is at risk of malaria, called on medical expert to update their knowledge on malaria, “If you don’t know about the correct treatment, you can not treat a patient,” she added.

She noted that the objective of the forum, which was co-sponsored, by RainOil Limited and NSIA Insurance Limited was to create awareness and support Federal Government approved National guidelines on malaria.

“Malaria is something that has been with us but people do not realise the impact on our physical and social lives and it is a silent killer which we are not taking seriously but we have seen cases of more deadly diseases which are being eradicated globally and we believe that malaria can also be addressed,” Jeff-Nnamani stressed.

She further stated: “We can eliminate malaria and gradually there can be global eradication if we can treat malaria like Ebola”

In her presentation, WHO National Professional Officer/Malaria (NPO) South West, Nigeria, Dr. Tolu Arowolo, said it was high time malaria was brought to an end in Nigeria.

She lamented that Nigeria has remained one of the largest global contributors to cases of malaria, stressing that continuous efforts must be in place to ensure that malaria cases are reduced.

Arowolo also stressed the need for proper awareness and education on the part of medical professionals to understand malaria cases so that there would be proper diagnosis and treatment.

It was estimated that there are about 300 million grave cases of malaria every year around the world, resulting in more than one million deaths.

Reports say that about 90 per cent of these deaths occur in Africa, particularly in young children.

A report by the Nigerian Ministry of Health (MoH) added that malaria is responsible for about 60 per cent of outpatient visits to health facilities including 30 per cent of childhood deaths; 25 per cent of deaths in children under one year; and 11 per cent of maternal deaths.

An analysis, published in JAMA Oncology, now suggests a relationship with obesity.

Higher Body Mass Index (BMI) in the study was associated with prostate cancer in all men, but African-Americans were at greater danger; the chances of these men getting prostate cancer increased fourfold for obesity compared with normal weight.

The relationship between obesity and prostate cancer is complex – but the risk is clearly higher in African-Americans, the study finds.

The analysis, published in JAMA Oncology, covers 3,398 African-American and 22,673 non-Hispanic white men who had taken part in the SELECT trial.

They formed a prospective study cohort who had originally been recruited to test whether selenium and vitamin E had a preventive role against prostate cancer – but they gave obesity-related data in the process. Any men who had not yielded data on BMI and other relevant variables were left out of this analysis.

Key among her findings was that the risk of developing prostate cancer in the African-American men who were obese approached four times the risk of African-American men who had normal weight. Using BMI, the analysis found a:
*28 per cent risk of getting prostate cancer for the African-American men who had a BMI below 25
*103 per cent risk for those with a BMI of 35 or more, representing obesity.

The authors conclude: “By contrast, ‘obesity was not associated with risk of total prostate cancer’ among the non-Hispanic white men in the study.”

An article linked to the study also picks up on the obesity risk for high-grade prostate cancer. Dr. Charles Thomas Junior, one of the journal’s editors and professor in radiation medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, writes: “The risk of developing high-grade disease was associated with higher BMI in all patients, although this risk was higher in African-American men compared with non-Hispanic white men (hazard ratio, 1.81).”

It has not been possible from this study alone to define a clear mechanism behind the association between BMI and risk, the editor’s note continues, but the findings “do provide a further rationale for weight reduction and a target BMI for clinicians to aim for in care of African-American men.”

Scientists have also found that exposure to plastic chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), affects fertility in next three generations of mice.

Scientists reported in the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology that when they exposed pregnant mice to levels of BPA equivalent to those considered safe in humans, three generations of female mouse offspring experienced significant reproductive problems, including declines in fertility, sexual maturity and pregnancy success.