Don Advocates Preventive Chemotherapy To Tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases

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Don Advocates Preventive Chemotherapy To Tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases

August 23, 2023

A professor of parasitology at the Faculty of Sciences at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Chiedu Felix Mafiana, has said that the dreaded tropical diseases can well be controlled or eliminated through preventive chemotherapy delivered in an integrated manner through mass drug administration.

This, he said, has become imperative in light of the global fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). The expert stated this on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at the NOUN headquarters in Abuja while presenting the university’s 23rd Inaugural Lecture. Mafiana noted that the tropical parasitic diseases constitute the greatest threat to the socio-economic status of humans among the many poverty-related tropical diseases that exist.

The World Health Organisation, he said, has stated that ’parasitic diseases affect more than one billion of the world’s poorest and cost developing economies billions of dollars per annum.' In the lecture titled: ‘Audacity of Parasites and the Imprudence of Man,' he said Many tropical diseases collectively affect the health of millions worldwide every year.

'These diseases can cause severe disfigurement and disabilities, including blindness, developmental disabilities and malnutrition, impairment of intellectual development in children, reduced school enrollment; and hindrance to economic productivity by limiting the ability of infected individuals to work.'

Mafia, who is the Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies at the university, added that these tropical diseases are caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and parasitic worms and can be spread by unsanitary conditions and contaminated water or food sources in tropical and subtropical regions.

‘Many cities in Nigeria, with the attendant population pressures and human indiscretion and dirty habits of throwing garbage into drains and tires, provide the impetus for continuous breeding of mosquitoes of different species contributing to disease transmission,' he said.

The don said school health programmes, including deworming and improved sanitary and hygienic conditions, should be key to addressing the burden of parasitic infections and poor sanitary conditions.

‘Lack of latrines as an integral part of houses and in motor parks and markets are the main reasons for indiscriminate defecation around streams, bushes, domestic and peridomestic areas on and beneath rock outcrops, and refuse dumps,' he said.

He further explained that human activities have not helped matters due to throwing waste and dirty materials into the drains and gutters, which inadvertently encourages the breeding of mosquitoes and insects.

Among the recommendations made, Mafiana said integrated control should be enhanced and reinforced through the delivery of impact drugs, as the drugs can be quickly deployed by community-based distributors with rapid reductions in disabilities, improvements in well-being, and, in some cases, interruption of disease transmission.

The professor of parasitology advised the need to educate the at-risk population on all environmental factors that may reduce their risk of mosquito-borne disease or to sleep under a treated bed net, which will reduce the risk of disease carried by flies that circulate at night.

He recommended that there should be a continuous improvement in research funding at the local level. On his part, the Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Olufemi Peters, praised the brilliant delivery of the lecture.

He commended the academic prowess of the lecturer, who has significantly contributed to the development of the university. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, Prof. Uduma Oji Uduma, in his vote of thanks, congratulated the lecturer on the auspicious occasion and for delivering the lecture exceptionally well. The DVC thanked the NOUN community for their support and for coming out en masse to attend the lecture.

The occasion was graced by the Ag. Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Mayaiki, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr. Noel Saliu, the immediate-past Chairman, NOUN Governing Council, Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, the lecturer’s family and friends, colleagues, and well-wishers.