MALARIA: Nigeria

Abuja — MALARIA has been identified as the leading cause of high infant mortality rate in Nigeria.
UNICEF Country Representative, Suomi Sakai, disclosed this On Sunday while speaking on the World Malaria Day.
April 25th is World Malaria Day. The theme for this year's celebration is "Counting Malaria Out" with the slogan "Count Me In".

The UNICEF representative, however, expressed hope that the distribution of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLITN), followed by sustained social mobilisation across the country to make sure that families actually use the nets every night will go a long way to protect children from malaria.
"The distribution of so many nets to so many households will be a monumental achievement. The next challenge will be to convince families to use those nets, otherwise the effort will not translate in the reduction of childhood and maternal deaths due to malaria," she said.
Nigeria has deployed its National Malaria Control Programme and the resources of its Roll Back Malaria partners, including UNICEF to reduce the malaria burden by half by the end of 2010.
One of its strategies is to distribute 63 million long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets to 32 million households in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Eleven states have already received 19 million nets in the first phase and about 46 million more nets will be distributed by the end of this year.
UNICEF is expected to distribute a total of 6.5 million nets.
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