An expert on malaria, on Friday, said that Nigerians were the largest exporters of the illness in view of the mobile nature of the citizens.

Dr Luis Benavente, the Director, Improving Malaria Diagnostics (IMAD), a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported organisation, said this at training for laboratory scientists in Lagos.

“Nigeria is the biggest exporter of malaria in the world and it can only be reduced if it is controlled in Nigeria,” he said.

He said that studies had shown that Nigerians were very entrepreneurial and travel to a lot of countries to transact businesses while carrying with them malaria parasites, thereby disseminating them wherever they go in the world.

He added that to control malaria in the world, it had to be controlled first in Nigeria and stressed the need for competent laboratory technicians to diagnose the illness.

Also speaking at the training, Dr Wellington Oyibo, the Consultant Parasitologist, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, said that some clinical examinations misdiagnosed every type of fever for malaria.

He added that when most people experienced feverish feelings, they automatically thought it was malaria and treated it as such. Oyibo warned that the intake of malaria medication for every type of illness would make the body drug-resistant and, therefore, make the illness very difficult to treat.

He stressed the need for microscopic diagnosis which would assess the parasite and confirm if it was malaria or not.