The nigerian government has set up a ministerial taskforce to accelerate malaria elimination from the country.
The coordinating minister of health and social welfare, professor muhammad ali pate who inaugurated the advisory board and ministerial taskforce, stated that malaria poses a significant burden on nigeria in terms of mortality, morbidity, lost work hours, out-of-pocket expenses, and government investments in treatments and interventions.
Prof. Pate noted despite the nature of malaria as a preventable and treatable disease, it continues to be a public health challenge for the country.
The coordinating minister said, “therefore, we need a paradigm shift from the standard approach to a more proactive and result-oriented method of defeating this disease.”
“on this premise, we invited academics, malaria programme experts, development partners, private sectors, civil societies, business enthusiasts, policymakers as well as the political class to a roundtable discussion to rethink the country’s approaches and strategic views on malaria, which culminated to the setting up of the advisory for malaria elimination in nigeria (amen), among other things agendas, and the ministerial task force on malaria in nigeria.”
Accordingly, the advisory will offer evidence-based advisory services and meet regularly to review program evidence and provide guidance in line with best practices for malaria elimination.
Emeritus prof. Rose leke university of yaoundé, cameroun is the chairman of the malaria elimination advisory.
Other members include prof. Dyann wirth, of the harvard school of public health, dr. Soji adeyi president, of resilience health system, prof. Ibrahim abubakar, university college, london, and prof. Peter piot, of the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine.
While the ministerial task force, consists of stakeholders from various sectors who have extensive knowledge of malaria implementation in nigeria and are based in nigeria.
“they will ensure that the advice and recommendations from the amen are carefully considered, analysed, and implemented.”
Furthermore, the malaria taskforce will collaborate with the federal ministry of health, development partners, donor agencies, and the amen as needed.
The task force will contribute to the overall goal of the national malaria elimination program (nmep) and work to reduce the incidence of malaria in the country.
It will also aim to improve the impact of malaria interventions through coordinated efforts in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and awareness creation.
The ministerial taskforce is co-chaired by the coordinating minister of health and social welfare and the minister of state for health and social welfare, while the chairman of the malaria technical working group in nigeria, will serve as the vice chairman.
Other members of the ministerial taskforce, include the permanent secretary, director, public health, representatives of who, secretary, country coordinating mechanism, gf, representatives of the civil society organizations secretary, pharmaceutical manufacturers group of manufacturers association of nigeria (pmg, man), strategic adviser to the hon. Ministers of health on malaria, secretary of the governors’ forum and technical adviser to the coordinating minister on atm.
Membership will be reviewed biennially for renewal or replacement to achieve optimum results, the minister explained.
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