By Asma’u Ahmad
The Federal Government has launched the report of the 2015 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS).
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, launched the survey on Monday in Abuja.
The NMIS was implemented by the National Malaria Elimination Programme.
Prof. Adewole noted that there has been an improvement in the data collection and results from the survey.
He said that it was an opportunity to measure progress made so far and re-energise efforts towards eliminating malaria.
The minister stressed that despite the notable progress made in the fight towards malaria elimination, the country is still far from achieving its mission.
“Malaria still remains a major public health challenge in Nigeria but we are confident that the war against malaria is winnable. No health doctor should treat malaria without diagnosis,” he said.
Adewole said that there have been a considerable amount of progress in the malaria elimination fight and also stressed the need to scale up professional and public education.
The Country Representative of World Health Organisation (WHO), Rex Mpazanje, urged the Nigerian government to make available access to malaria intervention for everyone, as this will aid in the fight.
Newsmen report that the Nigerian government conducts periodic survey to ascertain the increase or decrease of the spread of malaria to eliminate the disease.
