BEING A PAPER PRESENTED BY MR. B. O. ADAGHARA OF SYNGENTA NIG. LTD. ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCHING OF ROLL BACK MALARIA CAMPAIGN AT IMPERIAL SCHOOL KADUNA

The havoc of Malaria on mankind, especially on children and infants is so tremendous. Over the year therefore, concerted efforts by both government and private organization have geared towards developing less expensive ways of preventing mosquito bite.

Three years ago, the federal government demonstrated its commitment for the implementation of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) initiative by hosting the African summit on RBM in April 25, 2000. At the summit, the participants promised to protect at least 60% of African children with an insecticide treated mosquito net (ITN). Currently, the federal government is driving this program with a number of Collaborators, which include the private sector, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies such as UNICEF & DIEF.

Our company, Syngenta Nigeria Limited is a private collaborator and the manufacturer of the insecticide recommended for treating mosquito nets under the RBM initiative. The relative cheapness of using Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) in avoiding mosquito bite and therefore preventing malarial infection is now a fact. The mosquito nets are treated once in every six months (based on the RBM programme) and the total costs (Net + Chemical) are below one thousand naira (N1,000) each. This is certainly cheaper and more convenient than fleeting bedrooms daily with aerosols.

The Insecticide
The World Health Organization (WHO) under pesticide evaluation Scheme approved Lambdacyhalothrin as one of the key inputs to the mosquito net treatment. Our insecticide, ICONET is based on lambdacyhalothrin and mosquito nets treated with Iconet usually remain effective against mosquito for one year post treatment and their insecticide capability can withstand washing. In Nigeria, Iconet is registered with NAFDAC and it is one of the products recommended by the Federal Ministry of Health under the Roll Back Malaria programme. UNICE and DIFD are presently promoting it as a choice product for mosquito net insecticide treatment.

We are therefore proud that Imperial School has accepted the use of ICONET in her integrated approach to malaria control among staff and especially students in her boarding facilities.