NIGERIA GETS ANTIDOTE TO MALARIA-INDUCED STILLBIRTHS

As efforts to reduce the mortality rate from malaria-induced pregnancy complications appear not to be yielding positive results, an expert has recommended that every pregnant woman in malaria endemic regions receive at least two doses of effective anti-malaria drugs at early gestation period to guard against stillbirths.

Rose Anorlu, senior lecturer and consultant in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, disclosed this in a lecture entitled "Intermittent preventive Treatment of Malaria in pregnancy" delivered in Lagos, recently.

Anorlu said previous study has shown that intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy with the combination of Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine has proven very effective for the treatment of malaria, which she described as the cause of many maternal deaths and also Still-births.

Malaria accounts for the death of 25 percent of infants and 40 percent of children younger than 5 years old in Nigeria, she said.

Anorlu said that federal government through the ministry of health has adopted World Health Organization guidelines and has intensified activities around the distribution of anti-malaria drugs to vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children younger than 5 years old through the Roll Back Malaria initiatives.