Assessing the progress of malaria control in Nigeria

One third of the world's malaria deaths occur in Nigeria. It is doubtful whether Nigeria will meet the malaria control target of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, having failed to meet the Abuja target to halve the burden of malaria by 2010. This paper assesses the current malaria burden and progress toward malaria control. Substantial data were obtained from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and other secondary sources. Data showed that the malaria burden is still enormous because of inadequate control efforts. In 2008, only 17% of Nigerians owned at least one net, compared with 12% in 2003. Eight percent owned an insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN), but only 6% of under-five children and 5% of pregnant women slept under an ITN. Only one third of under-five children with fever received antimalarial drugs, while one fifth of pregnant women took antimalarial drugs for prevention. Chloroquine is still the most common drug used in malaria treatment, despite its ban in first-line treatment since 2005. The paper concludes that scaling up home management of malaria and a community-centred approach to ITN and artemisinin-based combination therapy provisioning should be prioritized.