By Wole Mosadomi

Minna—NO fewer than 19,000 children below five years old, die of malaria in Niger State annually, making it the state with the highest number of child deaths from malaria in the north central zone of the country.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jibril Mustapha, who made this known on this year’s World Malaria Day at Gussoro village in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state, said the development adversely affected the economy of the state, making it to lose about N5.2 billion annually.

According to him, “The disease is responsible for 30 percent and 11 percent of under five and maternal deaths respectively. The terms of the cost prevention and control as well as loss of man hours is about N5.2 billion. Annually, a total of 19,000 under five children die in Niger. With this, in our case management, a total number of 892,300 children under five years and 668,655 adults received free malaria treatment.”

He said in an effort to bring healthcare service to the door step of people of the state, government would soon unveil its first ever state led health reform agenda titled ‘Niger Health 1.0’ aimed at ensuring a 24-hour health service in all the 25 Local government areas of the state.

Speaking, President of the National Association of Nigeria Pediatrics Nurses, NANPAN, Olubunmi Lawal Aiyedun, called on the states and Federal governments to invest more on preventive measures like treated mosquito nets to tackle the disease.

She added that after a demographic survey in 2013, only 11 percent of children were using the treated mosquito net, and only 12 percent had access to the net in the state a situation which she said was not encouraging.

She called on people of the state especially the nursing mothers to be more cautious by preventing their children from being infected by the disease adding that prevention is better than cure.