Communique on  “Mosquito Talk 0.1” Organized by Hatch Pest Control and Environmental Service Ltd and #EndMalariainNigeria, held on Monday 25th of April At Kalakuta Museum Ikeja, Lagos, in commemoration of World Malaria Day 2022.

1. “Mosquito Talk 0.1: Innovating to Combat Malaria on World Malaria Day 2022”

“Mosquito Talk 0.1” was held at the Kalakuta Museum in Ikeja, Lagos, in commemoration of World Malaria Day 2022 with the theme “Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives”. It was well attended by pest control experts, environmental health professionals, social activists, the media, including Object TV and Arise, students, and youths, both online and onsite. The virtual audience joined via Zoom Live and Instagram Live

2. Moderators

The program was moderated by PCO Tolu Caleb (MD Rotimax Limited) and Dr. Buntu (a Comedian).

The panelists were:

i.    Pest Control Officer, PCO Francis Nwapa: Managing Director of Hatch Pest Control and Environmental Service Limited and Convener of #EndMalariaInNigeria

ii.  PCO Michael Ayotunde Somoye: an Epidemiologist and Pestologist

iii.  Adeola Soetan: President of Citizenship Civic Awareness Center, aka Democracy Vanguard

iv.  Sanitarian Obiora Precious: EHO/HSE Personnel

3. Malaria: Identification of the Causes, Problems, and Symptoms

The panelists during the “Question & Answer” session of the Talk show, moderated by PCO Tolu Caleb and Dr. Buntun, identified public health problems as the major cause of the high incidence of malaria due to the regular breeding of Mosquitoes as vectors.

i. Malaria is a tropical acute and chronic life-threatening parasitic protozoan disease characterized by fever. It is transmitted from one person to another through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes, which is its known vector, and it transmits a protozoon of the Plasmodium genus.

The most common species in Sub-Saharan Africa is P. falciparum, which causes over 300,000 deaths per year in Nigeria alone, accounting for 27 percent of the Global malaria mortality rate.

ii. Mosquitoes breed in dirty environments such as stagnant water, improper disposal of waste, improper drainage systems, and overgrown grass in our surroundings.

iii. Symptoms are body weakness, fever, anemia, headache, body shaking, vomiting, splenomegaly, loss of appetite, and in severe cases, mental disorientation, leading to the patient being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. 

4. Resolution 

i. The government has a vital role to play in eradicating malaria in Nigeria and the government should prioritize preventive rather than curative measures as a panacea to ending malaria in Nigeria. 

ii.    That promoting Insecticide Treated Net, ITN, as a means of malaria control in Nigeria is cosmetic without rolling back Mosquitoes and having good governance that can address the problem of mass poverty, citing poor housing structures, and poor power supply as a reason why ITN cannot replace sanitation and proper water management to discouraging breeding site for mosquitos as a means of controlling malaria in Nigeria. 

iii. Regarding the Malaria Vaccine, the panel resolved that administering the malaria vaccine without eliminating mosquito breeding sites will amount to putting the cart before the horse. The introduction of the Covid-19 vaccine has revealed that those vaccinated are still at risk of contracting the virus if safety measures are not observed and as such it’s important to first resolve Nigeria’s poor environmental and public health deficits so that the vaccine can be a complementary measure of malaria control. 

iv.    There must be political intervention to guarantee total rollback of malaria and mosquito by the provision of good governance that can eradicate mass poverty since the study has shown that the poorer the people are, the higher the incidence of malaria due to overpopulation, squalor, and clustering of poor people in unplanned slums and urban ghetto without proper public health sanitation, drainage, and waste disposal system. 

To achieve primary health-focused good governance, citizens should exercise their civic rights wisely by voting for political parties and candidates that will make the health of citizens a priority. 

v.    That government should declare a State of Emergency on Malaria, an endemic disease that has claimed more casualties in human lives than COVID-19. HIV AIDS in Nigeria. As a step in this direction, all tiers of government must make water and waste management a priority by ensuring total reconstruction of all drainages in Nigeria in such a way that breeding mosquito sites are eliminated and an end to poor waste management.

vi.    Design a National Road Map to End Malaria in Nigeria and be committed to its 100% implementation. As part of practical measures in achieving this road map, Environmental Health Professionals should be appointed to head environmental health decision bodies and ministries in all tiers of government.

vii.    Mass mobilization through conventional and social media is a necessary tool to drive public enlightenment for citizen personal intervention, personal hygiene, and environmental sanitation to end improper refuse disposal, throwing pet bottles, nylons etc. from the vehicles or dropping them on the road and an end to open defecation.

5. Conclusion 

Haven established that it’s impossible to ‘roll back Malaria’ without ‘Rolling Back Mosquito’ There is the need to establish adequately funded Malaria Research Laboratories in all federal universities across the country as a way of making continuous research on the vector’s mode of transmission and propounding innovative scientific methods of control, diagnosis and treatment.

The seminar came to an end with the slogan #Roll back Mosquitoes, #EndMalariaInNigeria.  

Precious Odoemena

Media Team

#EndMalariaInNigeria

Francis Nwapa

Convener

#EndMalariaInNigeria

Some Highlights of the event