The Civil Society for Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN), has condemned the residents’ attitude against the organisation’s program as the reason for the inability to eradicate malaria in Nigeria.
This is as the group stated that it has achieved over 70 percent success in its program across the state.
According to ACOMIN, the 2020 World Malaria Report stated that Nigeria has the highest number of global malaria cases and accounted for the highest number of deaths.
Osun Coordinator of ACOMIN, Aremu Stephen during a press briefing in Osogbo on Thursday disclosed “ACOMIN was re-engaged by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) under the ongoing Global Fund (GF) Malaria Grant to continue “implementing the civil society component, having successfully done this from 2019 to 2020.”
He reaffirmed its position on the prevention, treatment and mitigation of the impact of malaria, and the promotion of immunization and better nutrition in Nigeria.
In Osun, the local government who are under ACOMIN are Olorunda, Egbedore, Boluwaduro, Iwo, Ejigbo, Ilesha West, Obokun and Irepodun.
However, State of Osun Coordinator enumerated challenges facing the society on fighting malaria including superstitious beliefs, increased difficulty in accessing hard-to-reach communities due to insecurity affecting many parts of the country, drug resistance by the malaria parasite.
He continued, “Approaching the fight against malaria through community-centred initiatives – such as the Community-led Monitoring project being implemented by ACOMIN – brings many advantages, tackling challenges by identifying and addressing the root-cause of failed interventions; and enhanced accountability among others,” he said.
Stephen, however, narrated several efforts ACOMIN have been making in its bid to eliminate the disease in Nigeria include but not limited to the provision of free Long-Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs), deployment of volunteers to carry out Interpersonal Communication at the grassroot level, provision of free malaria test kits and medicines at some health facilities and Community-led Monitoring to ensure accountability in malaria interventions.
Speaking, the State program manager of ACOMIN David Segun said that Osun has achieved over 70 percent success in its program across the state.
He said, “The community-centred initiative being implemented by ACOMIN, has yielded successes”.
