Fighting Disease: Nigeria

Controlling Malaria

Malaria is a potentially fatal mosquito-borne parasitic disease, widespread in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Each year, the preventable disease, which causes high fevers and flu-like symptoms, kills more than 1 million people (mostly children), with 350-500 million cases reported annually worldwide. Learn more about the Carter Center's Malaria Control Program >

More deaths occur in Nigeria from malaria than in any other country; approximately one third of all children who die from malaria are Nigerian.

In 2010, Nigeria launched the largest long-lasting insecticidal net distribution effort in history.  The primary goal is to provide each and every household in the country with two nets.  The Carter Center is a part of this epic activity, focusing efforts on the nine states where we have supported other neglected disease control and elimination programs including lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and trachoma.

Bed net monitoring and health education for malaria control are conducted in the context of community-based drug distribution activities for the country's river blindness, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis programs. In Nigeria, The Carter Center integrates malaria control with its lymphatic filariasis and river blindness prevention activities. Since the same mosquito transmits both malaria and lymphatic filariasis in Africa, the distribution of bed nets — paired with health education — can be used to prevent both diseases at once.

Since 2004, The Center has supported the distribution of more than 4 million insecticide-treated bed nets in Nigeria, 90 percent of which were distributed between December 2010 and February 2011. In addition, The Carter Center has developed an innovative set of community-based behavior change interventions to increase and sustain the appropriate use and care of bed nets following mass distribution efforts that emphasize the effectiveness of bed nets for reducing the transmission of both malaria and lymphatic filariasis.

In late 2010, The Carter Center conducted malaria surveys in two states (Plateau in North Central region and Abia in South East region). These surveys will assist the ministries of health in evaluating the impact of their malaria control by providing detailed baseline information about the prevalence of malaria and anemia at the state level, and also will facilitate the evaluation of The Carter Center's programs in these states.

ITN/LLINs Distributed in Ethiopia and Nigeria with Assistance from The Carter Center, 2004–2011 View graph >