HealthNewsNG cited in Malaria Journal

A story published on HealthNewsNG.com has been cited in a research work published in Malaria Journal. The research was on "Perceptions of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) and barriers to adherence in Nasarawa and Cross River States in Nigeria" was carried out by a team of researchers from the USA and US Agency for International Development (USAID), Abuja, Nigeria.

They carried out a cross-sectional study in peri-urban and rural communities in Nasarawa and Cross River States in Nigeria.

"Study instruments were based on the socio-ecological model and its multiple levels of influences, taking into account individual, community, societal, and environmental contexts of behaviour and social change. Women of reproductive age, their front-line care providers, and (in Nasarawa only) their spouses participated in focus group discussions and in-depth individual interviews. Facility sampling was purposive to include tertiary, secondary and primary health facilities," the researchers reported.

HealthNewsNG.com's provided supporting information on the continual usage of chloroquine in Nigeria despite the global ban on its usage by the World Health Organization.

In an exclusive chat with HealthNewsNG.com, Dr. Robert D. Newman, Director of the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Programme said as long as chloroquine remains available, the goal of eradicating malaria globally would be hard.

He however commended the efforts of stakeholders in the fight against malaria in Africa and shed more light on the current state of the malaria vaccine which he said would not replace, but complement current strategies including controversial ones such as the use of genetically modified mosquitoes. 

Commenting on the Malaria Journal citation, Paul Adepoju, Managing Editor of HealthNewsNG.com said the unsolicited recognition confirms HealthNewsNG's status as the reliable source for health news in this part of the world.

"Malaria Journal is the world's most reliable journal that covers malaria researches all over the world. For us to be recognized shows that we can compete with WebMD and other world's leading health news website," he said.

He added the feat would encourage the entire team to do more.

He said: "We remain focused and ambitious. We are already the health news website in this part of the world with a lot of international collaborations; we have more that we will be making public very soon."

Malaria Journal is an open access journal published by BioMed Central and has an impact factor of 3.40.