“Uganda is ranked 3rd highest contributor of malaria cases (5.4 percent) and 7th highest contributor of malaria deaths globally (2.9 percent),” said the Minister for Health, Jane Ruth Aceng.
According to the minister, Uganda is at high risk of malaria due to our climatic conditions. She said that the most affected populations include children, pregnant women and people who live in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
She said between 2021 and 2023, the country experienced a generalized increase in malaria cases, “with some areas surpassing the epidemic thresholds.”
“At the peak of the epidemic in July 2022, over 75 districts were reported as having a malaria epidemic. As a result, there was an increase in the demand for anti-malarial drugs,” she said.
The Minister made the revelation on Friday while receiving a consignment of anti-malaria medicines worth 1.1 million U.S. dollars donated by China. The drugs were handed over by the Chinese Ambassador to Uganda, Zhang Lizhong, at the National Medical Stores in Kajjansi, central district of Wakiso, a district in the Central Region of Uganda.
She said the drugs will greatly help to curb the epidemic in Uganda. She reported that the country last year experienced an upsurge in cases of malaria, which spread to more than half of the districts across Uganda.
“Therefore, this generous donation of anti-malarial drugs will be helpful in the fight against malaria and control of the malaria epidemic, especially in prone areas,” the minister said.
Ambassador Zhang said the cooperation in health was one of the most important areas of cooperation in the bilateral relations of the two countries.
“This donation is also an implementation of the medical and health program among the Nine Programs initiated at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC),” Zhang said.
The Ambassador said the two countries had for long cooperated in the health sector and would continue doing the same.
Since 1983, China has dispatched 23 batches of medical teams to Uganda with 218 doctors. Hundreds of thousands of Ugandans have since been treated for various illnesses.
Zhang said the two countries could work together to achieve digitalization in healthcare and jointly research herbs to combat viruses.
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