To finally eradicate malaria in Nigeria, the people and government of the west African country need to work together to make their environments healthier and not just rely on the use of drugs alone to prevent the scourge, a local senior health worker said on Wednesday.

Okechukwu Ezekwesili, the Head Of Department at the Anti- malaria Center and Laboratory of the China-Nigeria Friendship Hospital in Abuja, told Xinhua in an interview that although governments at all levels have been providing drugs and treated mosquito nets to the citizens, the scourge can be more prevented through proper cleaning of the environment, clearing of sewage and drainage systems.

"You cannot win the war against malaria if the environment is not what it should be because that is where you must start from," he said.

"Nigeria is a large country that needs to put in so much effort in cleaning the environment. If it means having more hands to clean the environments, that is one major thing every human being must be encouraged to do before talking about treated nets or drug provision," he said.

"If an environment is clean, other things will work out smoothly. But when around you there are refuse dump sites, blocked drainage and sewage, you are creating more breeding grounds for mosquitoes which cause malaria," he added.

"In fact, if we are able to take care of everything that will enable the mosquitoes to breathe, then you find out that is the best way to handle the malaria issue. By so doing, you must have won more that 50 percent of the war against malaria," the medical practitioner said.

Despite budgeting more than 3 billion U.S. dollars (480 billion naira) to combat malaria annually, Nigeria sees more than 300,000 citizens, mostly children, killed by the disease each year.

It is said that every minute, a child dies of the ailment in Nigeria, causing it to record the highest malaria cases in the world, according to Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Nigeria alone contributes 23 percent, which is almost a quarter of the global malaria cases.

But, this, according to Ezekwesili, can be curtailed if the west African country can take a cue from the way China and developed countries have stepped up the fight against malaria, which is a serious tropical disease spread by the female Anopheles mosquitoes.

He said on the average, according to records, 150 malaria patients visit the China-Nigeria Friendship Hospital daily to seek medical attention. Whereas, more number of patients might be recorded in other rural and urban areas across the country on a daily basis.

"I will say one thing is to budget some specific amount of money and another thing you also need to look at is how that money is put into use or utilized before you begin to talk about winning the war against malaria, which, as you know, is endemic with us here," he said.

"When I visited an institute in China some years ago, I found out of all the seven regions, they had been able to control malaria in six. And considering China's population to Nigeria, which is about one-tenth of the Chinese population, it means a similar thing is achievable here," he said, adding the authorities need to constantly collate data and encourage more analysis -- stage by stage -- to know how best to put an end to the scourge.

There are about four different species of malaria parasites but Nigeria still battles only one and this signals that a lot more has to be done, Ezekwesili noted. Endi

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