Punch Newspaper introduces website to create awareness on Malaria treatment

by Ranti Joseph

punch

Malaria being one of the top killer disease in not only Nigeria but also Africa has always been a thing of deep concern to World Health organisation (WHO)who says that malaria led to an estimated 627,000 deaths worldwide in 2012, with 564300 (90%) being from sub-Saharan Africa.

But the unfortunate thing is the disease is not the only thing that kills but also the issue of less or no awareness, self- medication and the use of fake drugs. WHO has always being stepping into the situation of creating awareness but it hasn’t reach a wide range of audience.

One of Nigeria’s most read newspapers, Punch, in a bid to also contribute its quota created a website, www.malaria.punchng.com seeks to discourage Nigerians from self-medication and direct them on where to get original malaria drugs.

The website, which is divided into three sections has a section where people can share their experiences with self- medication, another section lists pharmacies where you can purchase original drugs and also locate the nearest one by clicking on the “Pharmacy Locator”. The Pharmacy Locator makes use of a geolocation API which in turn streamlines the result to pharmacies close to you, while the last section provides you with the opportunity to share your experience with the use of either expired or fake drugs.

The reason for the creation of this website according to what is written on the website itself is “Malaria has remained a major cause of death in Nigeria, worsened by the increasing instances of self-medication. Nigerians regularly place themselves on malaria medication but often find they get worse rather than better because the medicines are expired, fake or wrong”.

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