There are no effective vaccines for most vector-borne diseases - Chukwu

Nigeria's minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu has declared there are no effective vaccines for most vector-borne infections. He said this while speaking to newsmen activities marking this year’s World Health Day with the theme "Vector-borne diseases - small bites, big threats".


The minister urged Nigerians to take necessary precautions to prevent occurrence of vector borne diseases.

The minister said: "The individual and the community have a vital role to play, we must abandon some traditional practices that promote the spread of these vector-borne diseases and assume responsibility for personal hygiene. Such traditional practices include staying late in the open or sleeping outside without clothes, poor handling of dogs, consumption of unwholesome food and water.

"The bad news is that, currently, there are no effective vaccines against most of these disease. The good news is that we can protect ourselves by taking simple measures."

He said population, climate changes and human activities have negative impacts on the incidence of the various vector-borne diseases. However, he said vector-borne diseases were preventable, yet they exert the biggest impact on the population.

In his remark, Dr. Rui Vaz, World Health Organisation's representative in Nigeria said the socioeconomic impact vector-borne disease is very high in Africa where the poorest are most affected.

According to him, in 2012 there were about 564,000 deaths caused by malaria and 36,500 associated with sleeping sickness, saying more than 45 million people are at risk of elephantiasis.

He said: "Factors that contribute to the burden of vector-borne diseases include poor environmental sanitation, poor living condition and climate changes that are conducive to the breeding of the vectors. Furthermore, vector resistance to insecticides constitutes a serious threat to vector control.

"The general public need to know that we can protect ourselves and our families by taking simple preventive measures such as keeping our environment clean and less conducive to vector breeding and survival.’’

he asked for inclusion of stakeholders in sectors such as environment, agriculture and local government councils, in the fight against vector-borne diseases in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.