Kampala — UGANDA has been selected together with eight other African countries to implement the Global Fund's two-year pilot programme on malaria.

The programme, worth $127m, is aimed at increasing access to effective Artemisinin combination treatment for malaria.

Uganda's budget proposal of $12.4m (about sh22b) was approved during a recent Global Fund board meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The funding is supported by UNITAID, the UK government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The other African countries are Madagascar, Niger, Tanzania and Zanzibar, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda.

The Global Fund Board said the programme will be rolled out unless significant failures are observed during the first phase.

Of the $127m total cost, the Global Fund estimates that $98m will be generated through savings in the countries' existing Global Fund malaria grants.

A further $11m will be provided from other sources like donor funds and domestic resources.

The Global Fund said the Artemisinin combination is currently the most effective treatment for malaria.

However, the drugs account for only one in five malaria treatments provided by Government health facilities and only 5% of treatment in private clinics.

The reason the drugs are not widely used is that they are more expensive than other malaria medicines.

The programme aims at increasing the provision of the drugs by reducing the cost.

In Uganda, malaria is the leading cause of mortality. It is endemic in 95% of the regions. It forms 30 to 50% of all outpatients and 20% of inpatients.

Malaria kills an average of 320 people per day and over 70,000 people per year.

The Government has switched to Artemisinin as firstline treatment of malaria.

The drugs are, however, expensive, with a dose costing between sh15,000 and sh25,000.