Nigeria gets N136.7b to fight AIDS, TB, malaria

AHEAD of the World Malaria Day (WMD) Thursday, Nigeria has so far through the funding of public health programmes and institutions as well as non-governmental and civil society organisations’ health programmes, received a total of about $829 million (N136.7 billion) from the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) to fight the three killer diseases out of a total approved funding of $1.4 billion (N231 billion). Also, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a statement yesterday ahead of the WMD said 50 of the 99 countries with ongoing transmission are now on track to meet the 2015 World Health Assembly (WHA) target of reducing incidence rates by more than 75 per cent with malaria mortality rates having fallen by more than 25 per cent since 2000. The global theme for the WMD for 2013 and the coming years is “Invest in the future. Defeat malaria.” Executive Director of the Fund, Dr. Mark Dybul, during a courtesy call to the office of Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday in Abuja said that the purpose of his visit was to know how countries supported by the Fund were faring, the value of money the Fund is investing in Africa and Nigeria in particular on the three diseases, and to also look at the proportion of Global Fund’s contributions to the control of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis (TB) and malaria in the country. Dybul recalled that the GFATM was created to complement government resources to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, three of the world’s most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need. “To date, through funding of public health programmes and institutions as well as non-governmental and civil society

organisations’ health programmes, Nigeria has received a total of about $829 million from the Fund out of a total approved funding of $1.4 billion,” he said. In another forum the Federal Government is said to be losing about N132 billion yearly on malaria management alone even as experts have called on the National Assembly to come out with legislation on more funding for malaria control in Nigeria. These positions were made known yesterday in Calabar, Cross River State at an event to begin this year’s World Malaria day. The Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Health in Cross River State, Dr. Iyam Ugot said that the Federal Government loses an estimated N132 billion yearly on malaria alone “in terms of malaria treatment, control, prevention and absenteeism form work in totality”. In Cross River alone, Ugot said that the Roll Back Malaria office in the state had distributed over 1.4 million Long Lasting Mosquito Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN). continued