New approach in fight against malaria unveiled

The health ministry has rolled out a new intervention to fight the spread of malaria in Uganda.

The Larviciding approach towards the control of malaria was on Friday launched by the health minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, at Butanda Health Centre III in Butanda sub-county, Kabale district.

According to Aceng, larviciding is the application of specially treated green materials to places where mosquitoes breed. When the parasites eat the stuff, they die immediately.

"We have been trying this approach for the last 12 years and our experiments have proved that it is a safe way of dealing with mosquitoes. The approach kills immature forms of the mosquito, thus reducing the risk of malaria transmission," Aceng said.

The minister credited the government of Egypt for supporting Uganda in introducing this system of malaria prevention both logistically and professionally.

"President Yoweri Museveni has been so concerned about the rising cases of malaria in the country and in one of his visits to Egypt; he was introduced to larviciding as one of the approaches. The President asked the Egyptian government to help introduce this here and they accepted to support us," Aceng revealed.

Following the request, Egypt sent Dr Muhammed Ali Shady to introduce the mechanism to Uganda.

"Dr Muhammed started training our staff on the new approach. He also helped us to do some experiments to ascertain the reliability of the method. We never wanted to loose our fish while fighting mosquitoes," she added.

Aceng noted that Kigezi region was not known for malaria. However, in 1990, the health ministry started registering cases of severe malaria in the region, which called for urgent consideration.

"Unlike other regions that are used to malaria, in Kigezi, once one catches it, the results are too hard to handle because the society is not so exposed to the disease.

"We, therefore, brought in mosquito nets, did spraying here and there, but all this has not helped much in fighting the problem as desired," Aceng said.

She asked residents to continue protecting themselves against the disease despite the new intervention rolled out by the ministry.
David Bahati, the state minister for finance in charge of planning, who also doubles as Ndorwa West legislator, hailed the ministry for its endless efforts in fighting malaria,is one of the most serious diseases affecting Ugandans.

"We understand the pressure that the ministry is encountering currently, but the commitment to continue fighting malaria indicates how serious they are concerned about the wellbeing of Ugandans," he said.

Dr Alfred Mubangizi, the assistant commissioner vector control in the health ministry, noted that the new approach against malaria comes at a time when mosquitoes were becoming resistant to some of the existing insecticides in the country.

He noted that the intervention will be exercised in the three districts of Kigezi - Kabale, Rubanda and Kisoro - before being rolled out to the rest of the country.

Patrick Besigye Keihwa, the Kabale district chairperson, said despite the various approaches against malaria, the ministry needs to focus more on sensitising the masses on the best practices against the disease.

"We still have members of our community who will receive mosquito nets and use them to rear chicken. Such people will always let us down even when we do our best to deal with the problem," Keihwa said.

He also called for more staffing in health centres and provision of accommodation for health workers to improve service delivery.

Residents speak out
Winnie Komujuni, 46, a resident of Rubaya sub-county, recalls how she lost her second child to malaria.

"In 1992, my son was four years old when he succumbed to malaria. At that time, we never knew about malaria fever," she narrated.

The boy developed a high fever and he later started vomiting. His parents, who had no knowledge of the disease, rushed him to a traditional healer thinking he had been bewitched.

Komujuni was given some herbs but the boy's condition did not improve.

"The area councillor asked us to take the boy to Kabale Regional Referral Hospital for further management," Komujuni said.
He was diagnosed with malaria fever and put on the drip.

"After two hours in hospital, my son died," she said.

After that incident, Komujuni embarked on understanding how she could fight the disease that had claimed her son's life.

"Since then, I started sleeping under a mosquito net and everyone in my household does. We have never seen another sad incident due to malaria," she said.

Michael Mubangizi, a resident of Kekubo cell in Kabale municipality, said he had completed his certificate in a building course and was supposed to travel to Kampala to start working when he suffered from malaria. For two weeks, he said, he could not do anything as he was feeling weak.

"I was supposed to travel to Kampala on Monday to join other workers on a construction project that was just starting, but on Friday, before I set off, I developed some weakness, which I took lightly at first. I slept, thinking I would be better in the morning, but things got worse," he recalls.

Mubangizi was rushed to the nearby health centre, but his body got weaker when he started anti-malaria medication.

"It took me two weeks to fully recover from the disease and when I called to inquire if I was still needed at the site, I was told I had been replaced," he said.

According to the health ministry, the number of malaria cases in June 2019 had increased by over 40,000 from those that had been registered the previous year.

Malaria prevalence dropped from 42% in 2009 to 19% in 2014 and in 2019 it was at 9%. The Malaria Indicator Survey (2018/19) showed that annual malaria deaths dropped by 57%, from 30 to 13 deaths per 100,000 people, according to statistics Qfrom the health ministry.