By Aminu Abdullahi Ibrahim

Malaria is a severe disease currently prevalent in Kano during the rainy season. Many individuals are seeking medical attention at hospitals and clinics due to the effects of malaria fever.

Malaria is a disease that attacks the body’s immune system and can lead to death. Annually many people face critical situations due to this disease in Kano state and Nigeria as a whole.

According to the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) malaria report, there were 249 million cases of malaria in 2022 globally, resulting in over 608,000 deaths.

The report also revealed that four African countries account for more than half of the world’s malaria cases, with Nigeria ranking first at 26.8%, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (12.3%), Uganda (5.1%), and Mozambique (4.2%). Furthermore, children under the age of 5 account for 78% of malaria deaths in Africa.

In May 2022, Nigeria convened a meeting with local and external stakeholders in Abuja to discuss progress in using strategic information to combat malaria. One recommendation from this meeting was a request by the Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) to the WHO to develop state-level malaria profile reports.

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Some Kano residents shared their experiences with malaria fever.

Zubainatu Abdulrahaman, 33, recounted how she lost consciousness due to the fever and was rushed to the emergency ward, of a hospital in Kano where she received treatment and recovered after two days.

Yasir Abdullahi shared his experience of being unable to move due to the fever and undergoing treatment for 10 days.

Sakina Mustapha described her severe fever symptoms and appealed to Kano government to take action against malaria.

Dr. Fatima Abbas, a family medicine practitioner, attributed the high incidence of malaria cases in Kano  to the lack of environmental sanitation and the rainy season.

She emphasized the importance of cleaning the environment and draining stagnant water to prevent mosquito breeding. Dr. Abbas also highlighted the vulnerability of children under five and pregnant women to malaria.

The Kano State government has said it initiated efforts to control malaria, including providing preventive drugs to young children.

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Babangida Musa, the malaria control program manager, reported a 65% reduction in malaria cases among the targeted population due to the continued provision of preventive drugs. The government has engaged 25,000 volunteer staff and 3,000 health workers to carry out the chemoprevention exercise.

He stated that the drugs were distributed in July, and children receive a four-day treatment every month, providing them with protection against malaria for 28 to 30 days.

He explained that they will administer the same four-day chemoprevention to the same children again, and even if they become infected, they will not develop severe malaria.

‘Similarly, we will provide another round of chemoprevention in September and October, until the end of the rainy season,’ Dr. Musa said.

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During World Malaria Day in April, the Kano State Commissioner for Health, Abubakar Labaran, reported that 62 people died of malaria within three months, while 474,565 received treatment. He also mentioned that the Kano State government, with support from donor agencies, allocates approximately N1.2 billion annually for the procurement of malaria commodities and intervention