Grace Natabaalo
23 September 2008
While the number of people dying from malaria in Uganda remains high, the country has started registering lower malaria cases and deaths according to the latest World Malaria Report released by the World Health Organisation.
Provision of insecticide- treated nets especially to children and pregnant women, indoor residual spraying and availability of anti-malarial drugs has contributed to the reduction in the cases according to the report released over the weekend.
Worldwide, an estimated 247 million cases of malaria led to nearly one million deaths in 2006. The report found that about 40 per cent of people at risk of getting malaria in Africa had access to insecticide-treated nets last year, compared with three per cent in 2001.
WHO has, however, noted that although the annual malaria cases worldwide have reduced, the disease remains a burden among children below five years in many African countries.
The report, which evaluates Uganda's progress in the fight against malaria between 2005 and 2006, says while there were 16 million cases of malaria registered in 2005, there were only 12 million registered in 2006, showing a considerable decline by four million people. Malaria cases have been rising steadily in Uganda since 1999 with the highest cases recorded in 2005.
According to the ministry of health, malaria remains a dangerous disease with almost 30-50 per cent of Ugandans suffering from malaria every year while more than 300 die every day due to the disease.
The report also shows that there was a reduction in cases of children under five years in Uganda with malaria from 5.8 million in 2005 to 2.3 million in 2006.
In addition, while 77,000 Ugandans died of malaria in 2005, at least 47,000 succumbed to the disease in 2006. Also, only 1,332 children under five years died in 2006 compared to 2,631 in 2005.
A 2006 malaria survey showed that 34 per cent of households in Uganda owned a mosquito net, but only 10 per cent of children slept under an insecticide-treated net.
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