A General Physician, Dr Saheed Adelaja, says resistance to antimalaria drugs contributes to malaria mortality.
Adelaja made the assertion on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan.
“Malaria is a major public health burden throughout the world.
“Resistance to antimalarial drugs has increased the mortality despite the various malaria control programmes,” he said.
Adelaja said that although the efficacy of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) remained high, drug resistance to malaria had increased.
He said it had become important to monitor drug resistance in order to reduce malaria deaths in the country.
“Monitoring the drug resistance to the available antimalarial drugs helps to implement effective drug policy.
“Emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance constitute a major threat toward the treatment of malaria.
“If not handled properly, this could reverse the malaria control programme and containment achieved so far worldwide,” he said. (NAN)
