Gulu — Gulu District health department has declared a state of emergency over what authorities have described as a severe outbreak of malaria in the district.

The worst hit area is Gulu Municipality while the counties of Omoro and Aswa have registering relatively low number of out patients' attendances, according to statistics released by the health department.

The department released the report in a special council meeting organised by Unicef in conjunction with the district health department and municipal councillors on the sudden disease outbreak at the district council hall on Tuesday.

The acting head of delegation of the Child Focused Organisation in Gulu sub-office, Dr Vincent Yomani, said the data they have indicates that out patients' department attendance of malaria rose from 25/100 to 40/100 in the district - accounting for about 43/100 school absenteeism rate among children.

"There is an urgent need to strengthen preventive measures as well as encouraging the local people to visit health facilities early enough to keep avoidable deaths at bay," Dr Yomani said.

He attributed the sudden rise of malaria cases to the unpleasant climatic conditions that favours breeding of mosquitoes in many parts of the district.

Meanwhile, Dr Paul Onek, the District Health Officer, said the district has already alerted the Health Ministry about the outbreak because the district does not have the capacity to fight the upsurge as they relied mainly on donor agencies.

"We do not have adequate support from the central government to fight this epidemic and this leaves us at the mercy of our partners in health," Dr Onek said. He revealed that the district receives about Shs300 million per annum for drugs and other management expenses, an amount that he said is far below the need of the health sector in the district.

The District Health Educator, Mr Gabriel Lokach, however, castigated some mothers in the community for using the mosquito nets they get from health units for trapping white ants, a practice that he said is killing the fight against the outbreak.

"On a sad note unless our mothers change their attitudes towards the use of the nets for the purposes they are met, the energy we put are meaningless," he said.