Health
Senate passes bill to create agency for malaria elimination
The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill seeking to establish the National Agency for Malaria Elimination in Nigeria.
The upper chamber passed the bill after considering the report of its Committee on Health, presented by Banigo Ipalibo, its chairman.
The clauses of the bill were considered at the Committee of the Whole.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the passage of the bill after a majority of the senators supported it through a voice vote.
The bill was sponsored by the senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Ned Nwoko.
The legislation seeks to establish an agency to coordinate national efforts to prevent, control, and eventually eliminate malaria in Nigeria. It also mandates the agency to formulate and periodically review a national malaria elimination strategic plan and coordinate the implementation of malaria programmes and interventions across the country.
In addition, the bill provides for the establishment of zonal and state offices to drive malaria elimination efforts nationwide. The agency is expected to institutionalise malaria elimination through a framework backed by law, science and accountability.
The bill will be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence before being forwarded to President Bola Tinubu for assent.
Report of the committee
Presenting the committee’s report, Mrs Ipalibo, who represents Rivers West Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the proposed agency would serve as the central coordinating body for malaria prevention and elimination in Nigeria.
“The agency will be responsible for coordinating all national efforts towards the prevention, control and eventual elimination of malaria,” she said.
The senator stated that stakeholders who participated in the public hearing overwhelmingly supported the bill, noting that it would provide institutional mechanisms at all levels of government to tackle malaria, which has remained a major public health challenge in the country.
She added that the establishment of the agency would help shift Nigeria’s approach from largely treating malaria cases to preventing and ultimately eliminating the disease.
Contributing to the debate, Mr Nwoko said that eliminating malaria in Nigeria is both practical and achievable.
“In the course of my research on the elimination of Malaria, I went to Antarctica with some of my legislative aides, after which I came up with the bill,” he said.
He maintained that malaria elimination could be achieved through the establishment of a dedicated agency focused on effective waste management, fumigation and vaccine research.
“Eradicating or Eliminating Malaria is achievable in Nigeria through a special agency for that purpose. The agency, when established, shall, through effective waste management, fumigation and research on vaccines, see to the elimination of malaria in Nigeria,” he added.
After announcing the passage of the bill, Mr Akpabio described the legislation as a landmark intervention in the fight against malaria, which he noted remains one of the most common diseases affecting Nigerians.
Malaria remains one of Nigeria’s most serious public health challenges despite decades of interventions by governments, international organisations and development partners.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria bears the highest malaria burden globally, accounting for about 27 per cent of the world’s malaria cases and nearly 32 per cent of malaria-related deaths. Nigeria, alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Niger Republic, accounts for more than half of all malaria deaths recorded in Africa.
The disease is transmitted by bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes and remains endemic across the country, particularly during the rainy season, when mosquito breeding increases.
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Children under the age of five and pregnant women are the most vulnerable groups. WHO estimates show that children under five account for the overwhelming majority of malaria-related deaths in Africa. In Nigeria, malaria is one of the leading causes of illness, hospital visits and deaths among young children.
Aside from its health consequences, malaria imposes a significant economic burden on Nigeria. The disease contributes to school absenteeism, reduced productivity, increased household healthcare spending, and pressure on the country’s health system. Experts estimate that Nigeria loses billions of naira annually through treatment costs, reduced workforce productivity and preventable deaths linked to malaria.
Although the country has made progress through the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, seasonal malaria chemoprevention programmes, indoor residual spraying and improved access to diagnosis and treatment, the disease continues to pose a major threat due to poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare access, drug resistance, climate-related factors and funding gaps.
In 2024, Nigeria received and began rolling out the Oxford R21 malaria vaccine, becoming one of the first countries in Africa to deploy the vaccine as part of efforts to reduce infections and deaths among children. Health authorities, however, maintain that vaccination must be complemented by existing preventive measures such as mosquito nets, environmental sanitation and prompt treatment.
The federal government has deployed an emergency multi-agency task force to strengthen surveillance, close immunisation gaps and expand access to treatment following diphtheria outbreaks in Kano and Katsina states.
Ado Bako, an Assistant Director in the Information and Public Relations Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.
According to the statement, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, directed the establishment of the task force as part of efforts to protect children and strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to prevent and respond to disease outbreaks.
“The federal government reaffirms its resolve to protect Nigerian children from vaccine preventable diseases and remains committed to a swift, coordinated and evidence based response to bring the outbreak under control,” the statement said.
The development follows reports of deaths among children in Rano Local Government Area of Kano State.
On Wednesday, a lawmaker in the Kano State House of Assembly raised the alarm over a severe diphtheria outbreak in the area and called for urgent intervention.
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is a serious and highly contagious bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
The infection spreads mainly through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, as well as through close contact with an infected person.
Common symptoms include fever, sore throat and the development of a thick grey or white membrane in the throat, which can obstruct breathing. Severe cases can cause complications such as heart and nerve damage.
Vaccination with diphtheria toxoid containing vaccines, including the pentavalent vaccine routinely administered to infants, remains the most effective protection against the disease.
Nigeria has recorded more than 40,000 suspected diphtheria cases and over 1,000 deaths since the outbreak began in 2022.
Multi agency response
The newly established task force will coordinate the federal and state response and comprises the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), affected state governments and international health partners.
The committee will be jointly led by the Director General of the NCDC and the Director of Public Health, who will serve as co chairs.
Its members include representatives of the NPHCDA; health commissioners from Katsina, Kano, Zamfara and Sokoto states; the World Health Organisation (WHO); the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); and the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme in Katsina.
The ministry’s chief epidemiologist will serve as secretary of the committee.
Vaccination and treatment
The task force will focus on containing the outbreak by investigating cases, strengthening disease surveillance and intensifying community sensitisation.
It will also work to identify and immunise children who have not received the required vaccines, particularly in communities where immunity gaps may be contributing to the spread of the disease.
As part of the immediate response, the NPHCDA has deployed 500,000 doses of vaccines to Kano and Katsina states.
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Beyond vaccination, the task force is working with the Katsina State government to establish hospital treatment annexes across the Katsina, Daura and Funtua senatorial districts.
The annexes are expected to facilitate early treatment and bring care closer to affected communities.
Emergency support is also being mobilised for referral services at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Katsina, which serves as the primary treatment centre for the state and neighbouring areas.
The support includes supplies of diphtheria antitoxin (DAT), intravenous antibiotics, additional clinical personnel and personal protective equipment (PPE).
The task force will provide the minister with weekly updates on the response, including emerging challenges and additional requirements, to ensure that identified bottlenecks are promptly addressed.
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Xylitol, a sugar alcohol added to foods, beverages and oral care products as a sweetener, has been linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart attack, a new study has found.
The sweetener is commonly found in products such as chewing gum, toothpaste, jam, yoghurt and ice cream.
This was revealed in a press release published by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) ahead of their annual congress in Munich, Germany, which runs from 28 to 31 August.
Researchers found that people with higher levels of xylitol in their blood had a greater risk of major cardiovascular events – defined as death, heart attack or stroke, compared with those with the lowest levels.
According to the ESC, the study examined data from 17,710 participants in two prospective observational studies: the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Ageing and the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk.
Over six years of follow-up in the Canadian study, the risk of a major cardiovascular event was 57 per cent higher among participants with the highest xylitol levels, while the risk was 18 per cent higher over 30 years in the European study.
“Taken together with data from the middle quartiles, the results from both cohorts suggested a dose-dependent relationship: the higher the xylitol blood levels, the higher the cardiovascular event rate,” it noted.
What is xylitol?
Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that occurs naturally in the body as a byproduct of glucose metabolism and is present in some natural foods in very small amounts.
It is also added to foods, beverages and oral care products as a sweetener, sometimes in amounts more than 1,000 times higher than naturally occurring levels, according to the ESC.
Marco Witkowski of Charite University Hospital, Berlin, Germany, who is presenting the research, said previous studies had shown that xylitol could enhance the ability of blood platelets to form clots.
“Artificial sweeteners are consumed by people who think they are healthier than sugar and they are generally regarded as safe by regulatory agencies,” Mr Witkowski was quoted to have said.
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He said the long-term findings highlighted “how little we know about the cardiovascular safety of xylitol” and indicated that further studies were needed, particularly as the amount of xylitol used in products continues to increase.
Dan Atar, a member of the ESC Communication Committee, said the findings suggested a negative long-term effect of xylitol on cardiovascular events.
Mr Atar, however, cautioned that the study is observational.
“As with all observational studies, casualties are difficult to infer, but this work shows that further studies are mandated into this societally important topic,” he said.
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