WMD 2010_AMMREN NG_L-R 'Timeless' editor Ayo Jeremiah, speaker Dr. Abayomi Afe, Country Coordinator Adeleke Adeyemi.AMMREN works with partners at “Counting Malaria out” in Africa
As part of its efforts to address the spate of malaria-related deaths on the continent, the African Media and Malaria Research Network, AMMREN, held a Media Forum on Saturday 24, eve of the third World Malaria Day (it started as African Malaria Day following the Abuja Roll Back Malaria Summit of 2000), to review progress on the Abuja Declaration targets and to reinforce the fight against the epidemic. The forum, which had for theme “Counting Malaria Out in Partnership with the Media”, is coming just as the US authorities, where the day--April 25--is marked as Malaria Awareness Day, released a six-year strategic plan to combat the scourge on the continent. Another forum was held simultaneously in Kaduna in northern Nigeria.
WMD 2010_AMMREN NG_L-R Guest, 'Timeless' editor Ayo Jeremiah, speaker Dr. Abayomi Afe, Country Coordinator Adeleke Adeyemi, award-winning children's malaria author, Ndidi Enenmor.
In a goodwill message at the forum, held at Timeless Media, AMMREN’s main media partner for the Lagos Forum, the Executive Secretary of the body, Mrs. Charity Binka, based at the award-winning network’s secretariat in Accra Ghana, who was represented by Mr. Adeleke Adeyemi, Country Coordinator of AMMREN Nigeria, said the group has over the years pursued projects to bring to the front burner the fight against malaria in Africa through the use of different media and training tools and through partnering with stakeholders in the fight against the disease. Mr. Adeyemi also reiterated the importance of the ongoing INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies of Antimalarials in Africa (INESS) Project in selected African countries. INDEPTH is an international organisation involved in the demographic evaluation of populations and their health in developing countries.
Meanwhile, according to Mrs. Binka, “there remains a missing link between the work of malaria researchers to tackle the reality on our hands and media coverage of it that is begging to be bridged,” she said. “This is amply demonstrated by the lack of sustainable media follow up on the Abuja Targets by 2005”, which set out to achieve among others, that 60% children under-five with fever symptoms will have prompt access to care and that 60% of pregnant women will be placed on appropriate medical care to pre-empt malaria in mother and child. Also glaring for tracking are the progressively tougher Abuja Targets By 2010, like reducing malaria morbidity (infection rate) by half of the 2000 levels.
Speaking at the forum, Dr. Abayomi Afe of the of Nigeria (IHVN), affiliate of Institute of Human Virology, Maryland, USA, said in his presentation “Defeating World’s Public Health Enemy Number one (Malaria Facts, Figures & Fallacies)” that about 40% of the world’s population are at risk of malaria; however, due to worldwide climate change, the figure is expected to jump to 60% before long. According to the speaker, the epidemic kills between 1.1 and 2.7 million people every year, 90% of them in Africa. Out of this, one million are children under the age of five, two die every minute.
Dr. Afe further pointed out that between 300 and 500 million clinical cases of malaria occur every year, “80% of them in Africa.” According to Dr. Afe, a review of the Abuja Targets for 2010, due to expire at the end of the year, shows minimal progress in the fight against malaria.
Responding to questions from members of the press and Café Scientifique Nigeria audience the moderator, Ayodeji Jeremiah, editor of Timeless, hinged the continuing prevalence of malaria on the lack adequate coverage by the media all along in the fight. He argued that malaria, which kills more people that HIV/AIDS, simply isn’t getting the attention it deserves; creating that awareness, he stressed, is the responsibility of the media. He called on the media to brace up in the fight against the scourge by being innovative in generating adequate coverage for creating and sustaining buzz on malaria among the populace and indeed all stakeholders.
There was an excerpt reading from a section highlighting the knotty issue of patient compliance and antimalarial drugs provider compliance from the recent Oprah-nominated, rave-making collection of short stories by Nigerian Roman Catholic Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan, “Say You’re One of Them” at the occasion.
AMMREN is a network of African journalists and scientists working together towards the eradication of Malaria in Africa. The group has a membership of over fifty journalists drawn from 10 African countries: Burkina Faso, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania, where a highly successful media sensitisation workshop under the aegis of the INESS Project was held for AMMREN members and communication officers from select malaria research institutes recently.
