I became so concerned about malaria few years ago when I lost a friend to it. Prior to this incident, I have always known malaria to be a very important public health problem, but I had trivialized it's ability to cause death. It may surprise you to know that 627000 people died of malaria in 2020 and Nigeria accounted for 31.9 percent of the total deaths. Globally, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. Yes! That is how deadly malaria is. Indeed, malaria is a life-threatening disease. Some of the reasons why people die from malaria include: poverty, lack of proper awareness and enlightenment programs on malaria, self medication and unprofessional treatment. The only bright side about this disease is that it can be prevented as it is transmitted through the bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito. Preventive measures to be put in place include: sleeping under insecticide treated nets, reducing the vector density by destroying breeding places, use of insecticide sprays, full body clothing and use of mosquito repellants, and Reducing parasite population in the body by early detection and proper treatment with antimalarial drugs.

Truly, Nigeria is a malaria endemic country and Nnewi, the city where my campus is located is not free of mosquitoes- the tiny deadly creatures that transmit malaria. Malaria is no doubt one of the commonest illness reported by students at the University sick bay. Isn't it funny how even medical doctors in training are victims of mosquito bite? Mosquitoes respect no man, neither does the effects of their bite do.
After some investigations and survey, I realized that many medical students in my campus know how to prevent malaria in theory, but in practical they do not. While some use mosquito repellent and insecticide spray, only a handful make use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs), of which you can agree with me that this is by far the most effective way of preventing malaria in our environment. Many students underestimate the importance of ITNs due to lack of proper enlightenment, even more regard it's use as being stressful, and the smaller fraction of students are financially constrained to get one for themselves. Generally, people find it easier to purchase anti-malaria drugs than to purchase ITNs. However, while we await the approval of the malaria vaccine, it is pertinent that we do not fold our hands and watch these tiny deadly creatures, sicken and even claim human lives. This is what the " Combat Malaria" project is set to achieve.
The "Combat Malaria" project will be geared towards fighting malaria prevalence in Nigeria. This time, the fight will be in my school community. The goal is to ensure that that every student understands the role of proper use of ITNs in the fight against malaria. We would do this by flagging off an online campaign tagged " Operation get a mosquito net." In this campaign, we would constantly push out contents about malaria ( especially it's prevention) through the faculty WhatsApp television and group chats, since almost every student uses WhatsApp. At specific intervals, we would ask random questions from the content and the winners will be appreciated with an ITN. The winners are expected to use these nets and give a review on the faculty WhatsApp television and group chats of how much comfort the nets provide, level of stress it imposed, as well as how much it had saved them from mosquito bites and malaria. With this, other students will certainly be encouraged to use ITNs. Even the financially constrained students may get free ITNs during this campaign as a practical project like this would attract sponsorship from colleagues, alumni or even partnering organizations.