FACT CHECK: Does malaria kill 822 Nigerians daily as Garba Shehu claimed?

Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, took a jab at the media on Sunday, saying they have not been giving the same attention on coronavirus to the malaria epidemic in the country.

Writing via his Twitter handle, Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s senior special assistant (media and publicity), also said the country suffers 822 deaths from malaria daily.

“This morning’s newspapers, all of them have coronavirus as the lead, cover story,” he wrote in the tweet which has been archived here.

“When will they bring the spotlight to bear on 822 who are killed by malaria everyday in Nigeria?” 

This morning’s newspapers, all of them have Coronavirus as the lead,
cover story.

When will they bring the spotlight to bear on 822 who are killed by malaria everyday in Nigeria?

— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) March 1, 2020

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CLAIM: MALARIA KILLS 822 PEOPLE IN NIGERIA DAILY

In trying to verify the figure he stated, TheCable contacted Shehu for the source of his information, which he said was from “Google”.

“Google. 300,000 annual deaths from malaria,” he told TheCable via text message, adding that dividing the figure by 365 will give a daily breakdown of 822.

But Google is just an internet search engine; it does not generate information — it only brings up what has been written on the world wide web about the subject of query.

So, TheCable again asked Shehu for a specific source where the data was harvested, a question that infuriated the presidential aide who said: “You can’t google malaria incidents in Nigeria? Because you have made up your mind to write that I am a liar?”

He was yet to respond to further enquiries as of the time of this report.

DATA FROM W.H.O. CONTRADICT SHEHU’S

The World Health Organisation (WHO) publishes an annual report detailing the estimated global cases and deaths from malaria every year. 

Its latest report, published in 2019, said that Nigeria accounted for 25 percent of the 228 million malaria cases and “almost” 24 percent of the 405,000 malaria deaths globally in 2018.

This means that there were 57 million estimated malaria cases and 97,200 malaria deaths in Nigeria in 2018 — 202,800 less than the 300,000 deaths Shehu claims. The daily breakdown shows 266 died daily from the disease in 2018, 556 less than the figure the presidential spokesman gave.

Further checks on previous WHO reports show that Nigeria never had as many as 300,000 deaths from malaria since 2010, as shown in the chart below.

THE 2011 ‘FACT SHEET’ THAT IS MOST LIKELY SHEHU’S SOURCE

When TheCable googled malaria deaths in Nigeria as Shehu directed, the google search popped up figures from a fact sheet published by the United States embassy in Nigeria.

The fact sheet, which was published as far back as December 2011, said: “There are an estimated 100 million malaria cases with over 300,000 deaths per year in Nigeria. This compares with 215,000 deaths per year in Nigeria from HIV/AIDS.”

The source of the information was not stated in the fact sheet, but WHO was quoted in an earlier section that reads: “WHO estimates there were 655,000 malaria deaths in 2010, 91% in the African Region, and 86% were children under 5 years of age.”

The 2012 world malaria report said in 2010, there were 660,000 deaths from malaria globally, and “Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria account for over 40% of global deaths (for the year being reviewed: 2010)”.

Although the report did not state the exact malaria-related deaths from Nigeria, 40 percent of the total deaths — for both Nigeria and DR Congo — from malaria globally that year stands at 264,000, far below the 300,000 deaths quoted by the US embassy.

When contacted on the matter, an information specialist at the public affairs section of the US consulate general, referred TheCable to the Abuja press unit of the US mission in Nigeria.

An email sent to the mission on Monday morning is yet to be replied.

FG AGENCY FAILS TO PROVE DATA

Further checks showed the said fact sheet was also published by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the federal government agency responsible for coordinating efforts to tackle malaria in Nigeria.

At its Abuja office, Celestine Effiong whom TheCable journalist was referred to for media enquiries, said the information contained in the fact sheet was from the malaria indicator survey 2010.

However, contrary to his claim, the report, which can be downloaded here, did not state the number of malaria related cases or deaths in Nigeria.

Specifically, it states that “primary objectives of the survey were to provide information on malaria indicators and malaria prevalence at national and zonal levels,” and that “42 percent of children aged 6-59 months tested positive for malaria when microscopy was used for testing.”

Subsequent attempts to get Effiong’s response was not successful as he did not answer calls to his mobile number and was yet to reply to a text message sent to him.

VERDICT: Garba Shehu’s claim that 822 people die from malaria daily in Nigeria is not true. The latest data from WHO shows 266 people died from malaria in Nigeria daily in 2018, according to the latest statistics from WHO.