By Joke Kujenya
AS WORLD Malaria Day marked its April 25, 2025, observance yesterday, millions of lives around the world hung in the balance.
Mosquito nets sway limply over worn mattresses in the small community of Ayobo, Ipaja, in a semi-remote Lagos State, where Hafsat Musa, 29, clutches her three-year-old daughter.
Just weeks ago, Hafsat, a fruit seller, told JKNewsMedia that she had battled to save the toddler’s life after a relentless fever took hold.
With the nearest health clinic just a few kilometres away and the cost of transport overwhelming, Hafsat said she resorted to prayer and herbal remedies.
As the child’s tiny frame burned with fever, eating and even crying became impossible.
A desperate neighbour eventually pooled money for a motorbike journey to the hospital. The diagnosis came swiftly: severe malaria.
Treatment involved immediate anti-malarial intervention and five days of hospitalisation.
The medical bills drained Hafsat’s modest savings as she bemoaned.
“Kai! Malaria is our everyday enemy,” she said quietly. “Every rainy season, we fight it with what little we have.”
Despite global advancements, malaria remains an ever-present shadow in the country, particularly devastating for children under five.
Even in urban areas, the battle is unrelenting relating Hafsat’s story with daily hints across Nigeria among millions.
In the bustling Ajegunle neighbourhood of Lagos, 41-year-old bus driver Sunday Eze recounts his own harrowing ordeal.
He told JKNewsMedia, “It started with chills, then headache, then vomiting. I thought it was just stress from work,” he said.
Fearing loss of income, I delayed seeking treatment. In fact, I was going to my business with it. Yet, my body kept giving me signals of an impending serious health condition.
On the third day, I was told i suddenly collapsed at the entrance of a local clinic and got carried into a ward.
Doctors diagnosed me with complicated malaria requiring emergency care.
My recovery took nearly two weeks, costing me much-needed earnings than I could ever have bargained for.
“No work and no food for a few weeks later,” he said simply.
Today, I religiously uses a mosquito net and protective coils, but frequent electricity blackouts leave me, and even my famiily vulnerable to nightly mosquito bites. “We live with it because we have no choice,” he said.
For millions of people these days, malaria is not merely a disease; it is a relentless force that chips away at their health, finances, and hope.
A Global Crisis Under Renewed Scrutiny – WHO
On this World Malaria Day, themed Malaria Ends With Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite, the urgent call to action rings louder than ever.
Despite years of progress, malaria continues to claim lives at an alarming rate. In 2023 alone, there were 263 million cases of malaria and 597,000 deaths across 83 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Africa bears the heaviest burden.
It says the African Region accounts for 95% of malaria deaths, with 11 African countries carrying two-thirds of the global malaria burden. Every minute, somewhere in the world, malaria claims another life — a statistic that underscores the devastating scale of the crisis.
While remarkable achievements have been made — the WHO says that with 2.2 billion malaria cases and 12.7 million deaths averted since 2000 — progress has stalled.
Extreme weather events, conflict, humanitarian emergencies, and economic pressures now disrupt malaria control efforts, leaving millions at risk without access to prevention, diagnosis, or treatment, the organ adds.
Experts warn that without urgent action; decades of hard-won gains could unravel. “We know how to end malaria,” the global campaign reminds us.
“The choice is stark: act now or risk losing ground,” the emphasis was laid.
Prevention Within Reach, But Access Remains Unequal
Malaria is preventable and curable, WHO stresses.
Proven prevention strategies include using mosquito nets, applying insect repellents containing DEET, IR3535, or Icaridin after dusk, wearing protective clothing, using coils and vaporizers, and installing window screens.
Preventive medicines such as chemoprophylaxis are also recommended before travelling to malaria-prone areas.
Yet for millions in Nigeria and across Africa, consistent access to these life-saving tools remains elusive.
Rural isolation, financial constraints, and fragile healthcare systems continue to widen the gap between what is possible and what is real.
In the 1960s, a global push had malaria retreating, but efforts faltered when eradication campaigns were abandoned in 1969. It took three decades before the world rallied again to fight the disease.
Today, with history poised to repeat itself, the warning is clear: complacency costs lives.
A Collective Responsibility
World Malaria Day 2025 is not merely a day of remembrance; WHO emphasizes.
It is a clarion call to reinvest in proven interventions, reimagine solutions to overcome modern challenges, and reignite collective action. Governments, communities, and individuals alike are called upon to protect the most vulnerable and recommit to the fight.
For Hafsat, Sunday, and countless others whose daily lives are marked by fear of a single mosquito bite, the stakes could not be higher.
Ending malaria is not a distant dream; it is a matter of survival.
The world knows how to end malaria. Now, the question remains: will it choose to act? – WHO asks.
