The Pest Control Association of Nigeria, PECAN, has identified Malaria as a major killer of Nigerians and mankind in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa over the years, saying that the sickness has killed more Nigerians than terrorists.
The Abuja chapter of the association on Saturday claimed that Malaria had killed Nigerians more than Boko Haram, bandits, and any war over the years.
The Chairman of the Abuja chapter of PECAN whose name was given as Terungwa Abari made this disclosure while speaking yesterday during a public awareness campaign programme to mark this year’s World Mosquito Day.
According to Abari: ‘Mosquitoes have killed Nigerians and mankind more than Boko Haram and any other war. It has killed us more than HIV and other diseases. It’s the number one world terrorist against humankind.
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‘In over 200,000 years of mankind, we have had a growing population of about one hundred billion, and you will be shocked to know that mosquitoes have killed almost half about 52 billion human beings from the inception of humankind.
‘The last records by WHO indicated that about 600, 000 people were killed by mosquitoes, and half of those came from Nigeria and six other countries, and Nigeria carries the majority. So, you can imagine the enormity of the problem we are facing when it comes to mosquitoes.
‘Measures to be adopted in tackling Malaria, We have a multi-pronged approach which is the Integrated Personal Management approach. We need to have cultural control and public awareness, and some of the little things we do go a long way in encouraging mosquitoes, and that is what we are trying to symbolically demonstrate today.
‘Pest control should be proactive and not reactive, you are supposed to clear the environment to ensure that the pests don’t breed there and not that you wait for them to breed before killing them.
‘From the cultural to the physical approach of cleaning the damages to the chemical approach of getting the top-of-the-line product that makes sure that mosquitoes don’t survive in those environments, I’m sure we will achieve the goal.’
Addressing journalists, the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, lamented that Malaria has an economic effect on Nigeria.
Represented by Yakubu Baba, the Registrar General of the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria, Abdullahi said: “We are ready to deploy our expertise and new technology to eliminate Malaria. The elimination of Malaria, according to the president, would reduce the economic burden in the country by over two trillion naira which is achievable.
