The World Malaria day was observed on Saturday, April 24, 2021. It is necessary to draw the attention of the Nigerian government to the devastating effect of and the dire need to curb malaria as millions of Nigerians die yearly from the scourge.
Malaria remains one of the most infectious diseases in the world, being a major public health problem associated with poverty. Among several complications, the effects of malaria seem to target the skeletal muscle system, leading to symptoms such as muscle aches, muscle contractures, muscle fatigue, muscle pain, and muscle weakness. Malaria causes also parasitic coronary artery occlusion.
There are about 214 million malaria cases yearly, and an astounding 438,000 deaths resulting from this disease alone in the world. About 3.2 billion people live in areas at risk of malaria. Populations of the poorest countries are the most vulnerable. More than 800 children die of malaria each day in Africa, according to World Health Organisation (one child every 2 min). In addition, non-endemic countries have reported hundreds of imported malaria cases. In 2013, 1727 cases of malaria were reported in the USA.
Most anti-malarial drugs used are active against the blood parasite stages (the forms that cause the symptoms) and include mainly: chloroquine, mefloquine, quinine, quinidine, doxycycline, clindamycin and artemisinins. Widely-used anti-malarial drugs have limited clinical lifespan due to increasing parasite resistance development. For instance, chloroquine, the drug of choice most used in Africa to combat malaria, is no longer effective against the disease in several of the malaria endemic areas. Artemisinin-based combination therapy is currently the recommended treatment against falciparum malaria in many parts of the world.
However, there is serious concern that malaria parasites are developing resistance to this treatment. With parasite resistance continuously rising, anti-malarial drug discovery requires strategies to decrease the time of delivering a new anti-malarial drug while simultaneously increasing the efficacy of existing treatments, developing alternative treatments, as well putting in place preventative measures, such as bed nets. In addition to causing serious whole body side effects, these drugs also have the ability to directly affect skeletal and cardiac muscles.
Wasila Musa Omoneago,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri
