By Mohammed Sani Garba
Environmental Health Technology Students Association [EHTSA], Federal University of Technology, Owerri [FUTO] celebrated 2014 World Malaria Day. The celebration this year started across the university environment to create awareness about the day before addressing students and general public.
In his speech, the president of the association, Comrade Celestine Onah traced the history of the day to the 60th World Health Assembly in March 2007, which replaced ‘Africa Malaria Day’, and focus to provide education and understanding of malaria as a global scourge which needs joint efforts in controlling the diseases.
The Dean, School of Health Technology [SOHT], Prof. I. N. S. Dozie expressed his happiness about the effort of the students in marking the day and call on stakeholders to join hands and reduce the incidences of malaria across the globe, which Africa contribute the highest number of morbidity and mortality globally; pledge his support to the students anytime such will arise, and hope the marking of the day and others be sustained.
The theme of the day is ‘Invest in the future. Defeat malaria’, but the association rephrase and localize it to ‘Invest in the future. Defeat malaria through environmental health approach’.
The association recommends adequate funding on environmental health services across the nation as the solution to malaria prevention, research grants to institutions like FUTO to carry out more research on malaria, and engaging of environmental health practitioners in piloting the affairs of malaria control to get maximum and efficient results among others.
Haruna B. Wakili, a graduating student of environmental health technology had this to say on the day “We commemorate the day like other organizations across the world; I am happy that my association engages fully in marking the day which brought glory to my department, my Dean was very happy and proud of the effort of my association. The message we are sending is that, malaria is an environmental health problems and needs environmental health solutions, simple”.
But Ijeoma Mang 400 level environmental health technology said “The celebration of the day is a success. It really widen my knowledge that malaria control do not lies in drugs, insecticide treated nets only but wholly on environmental health management and control. I am grateful to my association for commemorating the day”.
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