KAMPALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Uganda dispatched a team of more than 370 health workers to the northern part of the country yesterday where a malaria epidemic ravaging the region since July has killed about 658 people.
Uganda reported an unusual outbreak of malaria in the north of the country in July, which health officials say has affected one million people from a population of about 39 million. Uganda has one of the highest rates of malaria in Africa, with some 100,000 deaths, mostly pregnant women and children under five, and 16 million cases a year, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
The emergency team sent to deal with the epidemic consists of 26 medical doctors as well as clinical officers and nurses.
“The team has been contracted for a period of 30 days to offer case management at the health facility level,” said Asuman Lukwago, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health.
District leaders in the affected areas have also been asked to recruit more health workers, depending on the extent of the problem within their area.
Northern Uganda has the highest number of registered cases of malaria in the country, government data shows.
The region is recovering from a brutal 20-year insurgency that destroyed most of its infrastructure, including health facilities.
“Due to various interventions, there has been a steady decline in the cases so far being registered,” Lukwago said. “However, the outbreak continues to ravage people in the region.”
Globally, there were 214 million cases and 438,000 deaths from malaria in 2015, according to World Health Organisation figures.
