Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, has called on hospitals, clinics and drug shops to stop guessing and start testing patients properly before giving malaria drugs, saying only about five per cent of fever cases in Lagos are caused by malaria.
Abayomi announced this new rule for handling fever cases at a meeting on Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Services (IMPACT) Project held at Ikeja.
Abayomi said the evidence generated through the project had fundamentally changed the understanding of fever management in Lagos and would redefine clinical practice across Nigeria and West Africa. He described the event as “the beginning of a new chapter” rather than the end of a project.
The Commissioner commended the Society for Family Health, the World Bank and technical partners for generating credible evidence that supports policy decisions, stressing that the findings would guide future health interventions in the state.
He applauded d malaria expert, Prof. Wellington Oyibo, for presenting data that clearly demonstrated Lagos’ unique malaria epidemiology based on studies conducted during the Impact Project.
According to him, the long standing practice of equating every fever with malaria has resulted in widespread misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of other illnesses. “
For far too long, fever has automatically been equated with malaria. Good clinical practice begins with listening carefully to the patient’s history, conducting a thorough examination and using appropriate diagnostic tools before reaching a conclusion,” he said.
Abayomi disclosed that following the study findings, Lagos directed all public primary and secondary health facilities not to treat malaria unless patients tested positive through Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs).
He said subsequent inspections of health facilities confirmed a sharp decline in malaria diagnosis, validating the effectiveness of the new policy.
He recounted tragic cases of patients who died after being repeatedly treated for malaria despite consistently testing negative, warning that assumptions in clinical practice could be fatal.
“Today, I believe we are ushering in a new era in Lagos State, and indeed in Nigeria where fever management will be guided by evidence rather than assumptions, where diagnosis will precede treatment, and where better clinical practice will ultimately save more lives,” the Commissioner stated.
Group Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Family Health Group, Dr. Omokhudu Idogho, said the dissemination meeting was an opportunity to account for investments, celebrate partnerships and chart a sustainable pathway for malaria elimination beyond donor funding.
Idogho explained that the project supported malaria diagnosis for more than two million patients across 314 public and 289 private health facilities while providing free treatment for over 50,000 confirmed malaria cases. He added that malaria test positivity declined significantly from 43 per cent to 29.2 per cent during implementation.
