By Sarah Schewe

IN August, Carlos Odora wrote in The New Vision, “Whereas it is important to promptly treat every malaria case, it is more important to prevent people from getting malaria.” In sub-Saharan African, malaria kills one child every thirty seconds. Although easily treatable, it is the leading cause of death in Uganda. 

Now a project funded by U.S. Agency for International Development will boost prevention efforts in West Nile and Karamoja.

Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV), an NGO that has been in Uganda for 24 years, received a Malaria Communities Program grant for a three-year malaria prevention and treatment program in northern Uganda to benefit 540,000 people. MIHV will train community and faith-based organisations on how to provide malaria prevention and treatment in their communities.

The most effective malaria prevention measure is to sleep under an insecticide-treated bed net. However, many families cannot afford them.

“The availability and affordability issues are improving,” said Dr. Kate Kolaczinski, vector control specialist at Malaria Consortium. She noted that free net distribution campaigns have helped address issues of equity.

Malaria is endemic in 95% of Uganda, but people with low immunity, including pregnant women and children under five are particularly susceptible. MIHV hopes to reinforce the consistent use of bed nets, preventive treatments for pregnant women and encouraging early treatment within 24 hours of onset of fever.

“The populations we are targeting in West Nile and Karamoja are isolated from formal health facilities due to poverty, poor infrastructure and insecurity,” said Paige Bowen, MIHV’s Uganda country director. “If you are isolated from the formal health sector, your options for treatment are limited so we are training local civil society organisations to fill the gaps.”

West Nile is home to internally displaced people and refugees from southern Sudan and Congo, and Karamoja suffers intra-regional conflict. As a result, two-thirds of people in West Nile and Karamoja do not have access to health care and are living in poverty. Forty one percent of people will not live beyond age 40, and the mortality rate for children under five years is more than twice that of other regions in Uganda.

MIHV is partnering with Malaria consortium, the Malaria and Childhood Illnesses NGO Secretariat and local civil society organisations to form the Uganda Malaria Communities Partnership.