As people in Africa commemorated the 5th Africa Malaria Day on Monday, the Ugandan government has stepped up its efforts to fight malaria, the deadly disease that kills 70,000 to 110,000 Ugandans every year.

On April 25, 2000, African heads of state and senior government officials from 44 malaria-endemic countries met in Abuja, Nigeria, to participate in the first ever summit on malaria. Since then, April 25 has been commemorated as the Africa Malaria Day.

Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted from person to person through the bite of a female anopheles mosquito.

Like in many other African countries, malaria has caused enormous human sufferings and economic losses in Uganda.

This east African country experiences malaria all year round although the intensity varies from region to region. The disease is mainly experienced after the rainy season when the mosquito population is high.

Recent statistics from the country's Ministry of Health indicate that malaria accounts for almost 52 percent of all outpatients visiting health facilities, and about 14 percent of inpatient deaths. Besides causing deaths between 70,000 and 110,000 people annually, malaria has also been identified as one of the main causes of poverty in Uganda. It has been found to have a great impact on the economic development of an individual.

To combat this deadly disease, the Ugandan government has embarked on several measures to eradicate it.

According to a Ministry of Health statement released on Monday to mark the Africa Malaria Day, Minister of Health Jim Muhwezi said that by the end of this year, through the implementation of the Home Based Management of Fevers (HBMF) strategy, every child in the country under 5 will access treatment of malaria within 24 hours of recognition of the symptoms.

HBMF is a strategy for making effective anti-malarial medicines available at community and household level. In every village, two community members are trained to treat malaria episodes in children below 5 years with recommended first line medicines.

In order to fight malaria among other diseases, the government has also embarked on a plan of building a health center in every parish in the country. Currently about 151 health centers in the country have been equipped to offset the burden of referral for emergency cases. By the end of 2003, the number of health facilities had increased to 2,930 countrywide hence increasing access to health services within a distance of 5 km from 49 percent in 1986 to 72 percent.

The Ministry of Health has also passed a new policy which will see the phasing out of fansidar and chloroquine use to treat malaria by February next year.

According to a health official, Rwakimari John, the new therapy would be based on artmether, a more effective drug.

"Chloroquine and fansidar are no longer effective against the disease. They are facing a lot of resistance," said Rwakimari.

He noted that the government has already purchased artmether doses worth 66 million US dollars to last for the next five years.

The east African country has also put emphasis on vector control through indoor residual spraying and promotion of insecticide treated mosquito nets. In 2004, a total of 596,081 mosquito nets were sold, an increase of 67 percent from 2002.

The ministry has acquired funds from the Global Fund, a fund established to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to procure about 2 million insecticide treated mosquito nets. It is also setting up modalities targeting to distribute the nets free of charge to vulnerable groups, children below 5 and pregnant mothers.

According to the Minister of State for Health, Mike Mukula, the government has also adopted a policy of advocacy and social mobilization as an integral part of malaria control intervention.

Mukula said that awareness has been raised through intensified community mobilization using film shows as well as radio and television programs.

Although the Uganda government has taken several steps to fight malaria, it still faces some major challenges.

The change to artmether as an alternative drug of chloroquine and fansidar is quite expensive for many local people in the villages. Ministry officials also acknowledged that the artmether is about 20 times expensive than chloroquine. This drug also faces other challenges because there have not been enough studies on its use.

Rwakimari noted that there is need to study the effect of artmether therapy among groups like malnourished children and HIV/AIDS positive people.

Mosquito nets are also still expensive for most communities in the country despite the government's effort of waiving taxes charged on nets.

Meanwhile, some patients especially in the rural areas have to walk long distances to find a health center. In some cases, these patients die on the way to the health units.

Source: Agencies/Xinhua