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Uganda: Government Introduces Malaria Drug
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New Vision (Kampala)
23 April 2008
Posted to the web 24 April 2008
Francis Kagolo
Kampala
THE Government has introduced a new malaria drug. The state minister for primary health care, Dr Emmanuel Otaala, said the drug - Artefan 40/240- cures the disease within a short time.
"Malaria continues to occupy 50% of our out-patient clinics and 20% of the in-patient beds. In each one hour, malaria kills 26 Ugandans and 320 people die every day," he said on Tuesday during the launch ceremony at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Otaala added that the new drug would reduce the pill burden from the current 24 tablets to 12.
"Reducing the number of tablets from 24 to 12 is an answer to the call of the many people affected by malaria."
Unlike Coartem and other drugs that have been on the market, he explained, adult patients would need two Artefan tablets twice a day for three days and children, six tablets for three days.
According to the minister, this would help to increase patient compliance to tablets and reduce malaria cases by resistance caused by failure to complete the prescribed dosage.
Arun Kumar Seth, the general manager of Ajanta Pharma, an Indian-based pharmaceutical company that manufactures the drug, explained that Artefan is more concentrated than other drugs they have been producing.
The price of the drug, he stated, is sh6,500 in all pharmacies.
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Otaala observed that expectant mothers and children were the most vulnerable to malaria.
He stressed that the ministry was committed to averting the disease and would spray DDT to kill mosquitoes regardless of opposition from environmentalists.
A senior medical officer in the health ministry, Dr. Myers Lugemwa, urged malaria patients to eat fatty meals and drink milk to improve drug absorption.
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