By:
Abubakar Mohammed
The
Society for Family Health (SFH) has called for a stop in the wastage of
anti-malarials, Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) in the treatment of non-malaria
fevers.
It
said that most fevers being experienced by individuals are no longer malaria
but presumptive treatment of malaria is still prevalent in the country.
At
a media Roundtable Discussion of Malaria Diagnosis last week in Abuja, the
Programme Analyst, SFH, John Ocholi, who applauded Nigeria’s efforts towards
eliminating malaria, said that only about 5 percent of Nigerians presenting
with fever in urban settings, have malaria.
He
called for strict compliance with the World Health Organisation (WHO)
recommendation on the use of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) for malaria within 15
minutes before treatment.
Also
in his remarks, the Head of Case Management, National Malaria Elimination
Programme, Dr Godwin Ntadom added that fever is one of the clinical
presentations of malaria and WHO recommends parasite-based diagnosis of malaria
before the commencement of treatment.
`He
said, “The Malaria Elimination Programme is monitoring and at every primary
healthcare, they expect cases of malaria to be tested using RDT and positive
result should be treated using artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs).
“There
is need to diagnose properly before using ACT because there is no other
effective anti-malaria drugs, especially for children under five years.
Ntadom
said that there was need to educate patients before administering ACT,
stressing that physicians and health experts should go for refresher courses
yearly to get updated on RDT.
He
said, “The new policy therefore recommends that all suspected fever be
confirmed with the use of microscopy in the hospital or simply with RDTs”.
Meanwhile,
the Society for Family Health said it has distributed over 58 million
insecticide treated nets across the country.
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