Students misses 12 school days every year to malaria infection – Prof Okwa
by Passman Akpos
A Professor of Parasitology in the Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology, Lagos State University (LASU), Omolade Olayinka Okwa, has said an average student in Nigeria loses between 3-12 school days in an academic year to Malaria infection.
She put the loss at between 2-6 percent of the academic year.
She stated this while delivering the 79th LASU Inaugural Lecture Series titled “Parasites: The Unwelcomed and Ungrateful Strangers; The Battle Line.”
“The effect on investment in education should not be undermined. Apart from the incapacitating effect of Malaria attack, the direct economic costs of Malaria that result from absence from school and treatment are enormous and the overall economic impact is substantial.
“Loss in school days represents a huge loss on academic standard and loss on the families, communities, and the nation’s investments in education. School absenteeism affects general performances and leads to poor grades,” she posited.
Okwa noted that though there has been a decline in Malaria cases in Nigeria from year 2000, Nigeria still accounts for about 25 percent of global cases.
On human Onchocerciasis, Okwa said the Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 99 percent of global cases and that in Nigeria an estimated 50 million are at risk in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. She said the disease has become a major cause of blindness in the country.
She added that many Nigerians are also contracting gastrointestinal diseases as a result of touching dirty Naira notes, phone surfaces, door handles, drinking contaminated water among others.
To avoid being sick from Malaria, Okwa recommended that people should sleep in well ventilated rooms under insecticide treated mosquito nets, avoid malariogenic environments among others.
She stated that regular hand washing and maintenance of high standard of personal hygiene would help prevent the transmission of soil transmitted helminthes.
She appealed to the government to adequately fund research in Malaria and NTDs along with the World Health Organisation/ NTDs road map and that adequate fund be provided for the health sector.
She also called for serious measures to combat open defecation in the country, noting that many items people buy in the roadside are contaminated because of open defecation.
She said since parasitism is a one-sided partnership or association in which the host receives no benefits, but instead some degrees of harm, every effort should be made to get rid of parasites in our environment.
