OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Monday 7.30pm.
HEADS of state and government representatives from 48 African countries arrived in Nigeria to prepare the first ever African summit on tackling the scourge of malaria.
The presidents of Botswana, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Namibia, Sao Tome and Sierra Leone had arrived by mid-afternoon with heads of state of five other countries expected in the evening.
With other delegations due in on Tuesday and others led by ministers and vice presidents, a total of 48 countries from across the continent were expected to be represented when the event gets under way on Tuesday.
Opening the technical session Monday preparing for the summit Nigerian Health Minister Tim Menakaya said malaria was the greatest killer of Africans.
More than one million Africans die from the mosquito-borne disease every year — 90% of the total worldwide.
“The burden of malaria has continued to increase, ravaging our communities, resulting in disabilities and death, especially in children and pregnant women,” Menakaya said.
“The socio-economic impact of malaria manifests as devastation of the labour force and depletion of the meagre household incomes of victims,” he said.
The objectives of the summit, he said, were to inform heads of state and governmment about the economic and social costs of malaria, provide ideas about ways of tackling the problem and commit the continent to reducing the death toll from malaria by half by 2010.
The experts then went into session to discuss the extent of the malaria crisis in Africa, health system reforms, policies and research.
The summit, which opens on Tuesday, is the idea of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo and is being co-organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) under a programme launched in 1998 entitled Roll Back Malaria.
As well as the African countries, Britain, Canada and the United States are sending representatives as are the WHO, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), regional African organisations, UN agencies, the World Bank, the European Union and bilateral aid agencies.
The reason for the concern is the rising cost of malaria caused partly by rising poverty and partly by lack of government attention.
“Malaria is now essentially an African disease,” says the working paper prepared for the summit.
“In practically every malaria-endemic country outside Africa, the malaria situation has been steadily improving. By contrast, malaria has been treated with inexplicable neglect in Africa and … (in Africa) the malaria situation is worsening,” it said. — AFP