Experts discuss malaria

Jun 29, 2003

WRONG prescription is responsible for malaria resistance strains in the Great Lakes region and South East Asia

By John Eremu

WRONG prescription is responsible for malaria resistance strains in the Great Lakes region and South East Asia, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Dr Louis Ouedraogo, the administrator in-charge for communicable disease data management at the African Regional Office said the disease developed resistance, particularly against chloroquine, following under dosing under the guise of preventive doses.

“People used to prescribe one chloroquine tablet a day for six days as a preventive measure. In South East Asia in the 1970s, they used small quantities of chloroquine in salt also as a malaria preventive measure.

But these were under doses and instead made the strains resistant,” Ouedraogo said on Wednesday at the on-going conference on the control and prevention of epidemics.

Ouedraogo told The New Vision that the best treatment for malaria was a full dose whether for prevention or actual treatment.
Dr Louis Sambo, the WHO Director for Programme Management — Africa region, told journalists at the conference venue in Munyonyo that the UN agency had a special programme in Uganda to address malaria disease in the category of children under-five and pregnant women.

“Malaria is a major public health problem in Africa and Uganda in particular,” Sambo said. “But in Uganda, there is a special package — the minimum health package in the districts and implementation is going on,” Sambo said but did not disclose the monetary amount of the programme.

The press conference was also addressed by Dr. Oladapo Walker, the WHO representative in Uganda, his Kenya counterpart, Dr. Peter Eriki and Dr. Idrisa Sow, the WHO epidemiologist for communicable disease surveillance and response at the African regional office.

Health experts from the Great Lakes region have since Monday been meeting at Munyonyo to review the progress made in the implementation of the protocol of cooperation on the prevention and control of epidemics and polio eradication in the region.

The experts called for concerted effort in averting malaria. Dr. Nestor Ndayimirije, in charge of communicable disease surveillance and response in the Great Lakes region said while the incidence rate of cholera and other epidemics were going down in the region, malaria was on the rise.

He said the incidence rate of malaria had increased from 7,698 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1999 to 15,940 in 2002. He, however, said the cholera incidence rate had dropped from 113 in 1998 to 11.1 last year with fatality rate also dropping from 4.34% to 3.65% over the same period.

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