The book that catches our attention today focuses on malaria, and what we must do to eradicate it from among our people. The book is titled: “The Story about Malaria: Past, Present and Future (Achieving Zero-Malaria by 2030),” written by Dr. David Owoeye and published in 2022 by Purplebloom, Ibadan, Oyo State.
In the introduction to this five-chapter book, the author tells us that the book was written to enable mankind to learn from history.
Thus the book is expected to help us (mankind) revisit history, learn from our past successes and failures in the war against malaria and pick lessons we can adopt or reinvent to renew our battle against malaria globally so that one day, we shall achieve a malaria-free world.
In the first chapter of the book, the author traces the origin of malaria to 2700 BCE, when the Chinese made a connection between its symptoms and febrile illnesses and enlarged spleen, and documented it in the Chinese Canon of Medicine. Quoting from documents produced by researchers across centuries, the author makes reference to efforts by the Chinese who in 1500 BCE reportedly made mosquito repellent extract from Ballentine’s tree oil.
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The author also acknowledges the efforts of Hippocrates’ efforts in Egypt, the Romans, the French and others in the discovery and general prevention and treatment of malaria. Then he extensively reviews literature on the work of scientists and researchers in the discovery of malaria and its management with the efforts of global malaria eradication campaigns beginning with the 1955 control efforts and its culmination in 1969 when the World Health Organization certified the UK and the USA to be malaria-free. Here we read about other global campaigns to control and eradicate malaria across the decades, and specific mentions are made of the Roll Back malaria initiative of 1998, and the interventions of UNICEF, UNDP and World Bank.
In this book, Dr. Owoeye informs that though malaria is preventable and curable, it is still a life-threatening disease of the subtropical and tropical region. He laments, however, that the African continent has the highest malaria burden of about 90 per cent of the global malaria burden. This is an unacceptable reality, even in the face of the African Union’s Abuja Declaration of 2000, which African countries formulated in 2001 and pledged to increase their health budget to at least 15 percent of their annual budgets in order to improve the health sector. According to the author, “Part of the goal was to reduce malaria deaths in the continent by 50 per cent within ten years. There was not much success after the period as only one African country achieved the 15 per cent benchmark, and twenty-six countries increased health expenditure but not up to 15 per cent. Nine countries made no changes and eleven countries reduced theirs.” (Pp13-14)
However, with significant global efforts and investments, within the two decades of 2000 and 2020, the author, quoting the World Health Organization, writes that “there has been remarkable progress in malaria control that has prevented 1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million malaria deaths. Within this period, global malaria deaths decreased by 60 per cent. Malaria deaths in Africa reduced from 680,000 in 2000 to 384,000 in 2019, while in the Southeast Asian countries, malaria deaths declined by 74 per cent and malaria cases by 73 per cent, with India achieving a remarkable feat of decrease in malaria cases from 20 million to 6 million.” (P15)
“The WHO certified ten countries as malaria-free, while twenty-one countries were able to eliminate malaria globally within the last two decades. However, the progress of malaria control globally became stagnant between 2017 and 2020, eliciting a miss of 37 per cent decrease in malaria cases and a 22 per cent decrease in malaria deaths,” the author reports.
In this well-researched simplified text, the author also exposes to the reader, the nature of malaria, its causes, and mode of transmission, the incubation periods, and factors that influence the spread of malaria. As to why Africa accounts for about 90 per cent of global malaria burden, the author states that ”spread of malaria is high in areas where the mosquito enjoys a longer lifespan sufficient to complete the development of the parasite in the mosquito and in places where it has more humans to bite than animals. These two factors are commoner in Africa and are why global malaria cases are about 90 per cent in Africa.” (P28)
In the third chapter of the book, the author sets out the process of managing malaria, from actual testing to be sure, and to accurately diagnose, and to discourage inappropriate use of antimalarial drugs. The author also discusses the treatment regime for malaria, and the now popular Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT).
The author then set out to discuss the impact of malaria on the individual, the family, and productivity. Some of these impacts include huge expenses on medicines and treatment, high absenteeism from school or work, loss of manpower and man hours at work, low performance at school or work, and government’s expenditure on equipping health facilities with staff and supplies, and significant decrease in tourism as tourists avoid malaria endemic or epidemic areas, with its resultant reduction in foreign investment and agricultural output, among others.
With malaria-related health expenditure put at about forty per cent, and hospitalisation about thirty to fifty per cent in malaria-endemic regions, it is absolutely critical that countries engage in concerted and deliberate efforts to prevent malaria. This is indeed the concern of Dr. David Owoeye in the fourth chapter of the book, The Story about Malaria Past, Present and Future.
He therefore suggests that prevention of malaria “can be targeted at the parasite, vector, host and /or the environment.” And he prescribes that information on transmission patterns and other critical issues in the malaria chain should be adequately studied.
Therefore he suggests free distribution of insecticide treated nets, insect repellent mosquito coils, and aerosol sprays should be deployed. For people with immune suppressive conditions like sickle cell disorder, he prescribes the administration of lifelong antimalarial drugs, and states that special attention should be given to pregnant women, infants, and children under five years.
Finally, the author states that concerted efforts must be targeted at global malaria funding in order to meet critical milestones to reduce cases and deaths by 40% (in 2020), 75% (in 2025) and 90% by 2030. In all, the target to reduce poverty and achieve a malaria-free world, key particles of the Sustainable Development Goals, are important future projections that must be prioritised.
Ultimately, the book is a well written work and illustrated for the understanding of even non-scientists. And the author has, with this book, significantly contributed in a great measure to our understanding of the malaria scourge and how to eradicate it from our world.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com, on X and Instagram @miketunbosun.