Nigeria: Where is the Funding for Health Research?

Dr Aminu Magashi

19 July 2011

opinion

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has donated a pick-up van worth 37,000 US dollars to the Federal Ministry of Health to enhance guinea worm disease surveillance.

Dr. David Okello, WHO Country Representative to Nigeria who presented the vehicle said it was the aspiration of WHO to see that Nigeria totally eradicates guinea worm disease.

He recalled that on February 17, 2011, Nigeria was honoured in Atlanta, USA by the Carter Centre for eliminating guinea wrm disease and maintaining the status quo for at least 12 consecutive months.

While assuring that WHO is available to provide technical support for the guinea worm disease surveillance, Okelo urged Nigeria to step up its disease surveillance to mitigate cross border diseases transmission.

Dr. Kabir Mansur, Director of Public Health in the Ministry of Health who received the vehicle on behalf of the Minister of Health, Prof. C.O. Onyebuchi Chukwu thanked WHO for the kind gesture and assured that Nigeria will not relent in its efforts to make sure that the country was certified guinea worm free hopefully next year.

Mansur said the donation of the vehicle marked a milestone in the guinea worm eradication effort and assured that the ministry would continue to partner with the WHO to making sure that Nigeria was certified guinea worm free.

In a similar development, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu has called on the World Health Organisation to support the Federal Ministry of Health in driving environmental health management as integral part of malaria programme in the country.

The minister made the call in Abuja Thursday when he received the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director of Global Malaria Programme, Dr. Robert Newman who paid him a courtesy visit.

Thanking WHO for its immense contributions to the Nigerian health sector, the minister said the country was getting it right in its malaria eradication effort.

He said the National Coordinator of the National Malaria Control Programme has been working hard to stabilize the system in the last one year, stressing that the programme had covered 25 states of the federation and had distributed 38 million nets so far.

He reiterated the political will of government to drive the malaria eradication programme, adding, “as we are distributing the nets, we should also pay adequate attention to environmental sanitation.”

While thanking Newman for the visit which he described as timely, the minister also assured of the ministry’s commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goal target.

On his part, Newman said the objective of his visit was to review the current malaria strategy and to mobilize partners towards interrupting the malaria transmission, among others things.

He commended Nigeria for the progress made in the fight against malaria, noting that the country has indeed made progress in diagnosis, control and treatment of malaria, a development which he said, has contributed to the efforts by Nigeria to meet health MDGs.

He noted that eradicating malaria in Nigeria is a huge challenge given her huge population.

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