Africa-Press – Uganda. The malaria control division of the Health Ministry has advised people going for the festive season upcountry to carry and sleep under mosquito nets to reduce the health and financial impact of malaria infection when the celebrations are over.
Dr Jimmy Opigo, the head of the malaria control programme at the Ministry said this on Thursday while launching the distribution of mosquito nets in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb.
“In the festive season, we spend a lot of time outdoors, stay out up to late, travel a lot and we are also in groups with big families. This makes it very easy for mosquitoes to pick [malaria-causing parasites] from one person to another. We also move to rural areas where there is more malaria. These make us more exposed to malaria in the festive season,” he said.
Dr Opigo said in addition to sleeping under mosquito nets, other options for prevention also exist.
“We can avoid them by going indoors, wearing repellants, taking prophylaxis [drug for malaria infection prevention] but most importantly, putting a barrier of a mosquito net,” he added.
Malaria kills 16 Ugandans daily and causes an estimated annual economic loss of $500 million (Shs1.76 trillion) due to treatment costs and work time lost, according to data from the Health Ministry and research reports.
Information from the division indicates that there are over 2.3 million mosquito nets for the entire Kampala metropolitan area, for a population of around 4 million people.
Last month, the permanent secretary of the Health Ministry, Dr Diana Atwine, said the government intends to start vaccinating children against malaria early next year to boost the fight against the disease.
“We are going to introduce a vaccine early next year. This vaccine targets the severity of the disease, particularly in children because they are the most hit by malaria but as the vaccine becomes more available we shall even increase the age group,” she said.
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