The Ministry of Health has announced an upsurge in cases of malaria in the country.
Addressing the press at Media Center in Kampala today, the Minister of Heath Dr. Jane Ruth Acieng said due to prolonged rainy seasons that the country experienced, cases of malaria have gradually increased exceeding the baseline peak usually experienced following rainy seasons.
Dr. Acieng said, the number of cases of malaria have increased by over 400,000 this year compared to last year from about 1 million cases in june 2018, to 1.4million in june 2019. She says this translates to a 40 percent increase.
She however noted that despite this increase, cases of malaria in 2019 are still low compared to 2017 and 2016 during the same period.
She also reported that the upsurge has affected half of the country save for areas like Dokolo, Alebtong, Lira and Otuke that have undertook indoor residual spraying.
It was also reported that due to government effoerts to fight malaria, there has been major gains in national malaria response over the last decade with prevalence dropping from 42 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2014, and now 9 percent in 2019.
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Consequently, annual deaths due to malaria dropped by 57 percent this year from 30 to 13 deaths in every 100,000 people.
The minister appealed to members of the public to embrace malaria prevention methods including sleeping under treated mosquito nets in order to scale down further the prevalence of malaria in Uganda.