Government reduces prices of malaria drugs

Government reduces prices of malaria drugs

The Nigerian Government has reduced the prices of malaria drugs as a strategy to ensure availability.

The National Coordinator, National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr Babajide Coker, said that the Programme had brought in cheap medicines to treat malaria.

Dr. Coker said: “through the Global Health Fund, we have subsidised the cost of the drugs from 1,500 Naira to as low as 75 Naira.”

He said that both preventive and curative interventions had also been rolled out to stop malaria, expressing enthusiasm that Nigeria would soon be free of malaria.

Preventive measures

The Malaria control officer said that for the prevention measure for malaria in Nigeria, the ministry of health had started the distribution of about 63 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets to protect Nigerians in 22 states.

He said that the NMCP would ensure that all resources for combating malaria were deployed to appropriate use, noting that all the partners involved in the fight against malaria would be carried along.

Coker enjoined Nigerians to make use of the free nets supplied by the Nigerian government.  He equally stressed that the government, through this initiative, was not out to put retailers of nets out of business.

NAN/Qasim