Malaria mortality upsurge worries Gulu authorities
A village health team leader shows residents how to use mosquito nets in December 2020. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Fact. Uganda has the third highest deaths from malaria in Africa and some of the highest recorded malaria transmission rates in the continent, particularly in the areas around Lake Kyoga in central Uganda.
Malaria has been the leading cause of death in Gulu District in the past one year, a report has revealed .
The report released by the district health department shows that a total of 1,229 medical fatalities were registered of which 105 were caused by malaria, 82 by anaemia, pneumonia (80), and respiratory distress (71).
Others were neonatal sepsis (65), cardiovascular disease (57), acute sepsis (44), congenital malformations (30), injuries (35) while other causes were at 604.
Mr William Onyai, the district health educator, told this newspaper at the weekend that people are not using mosquito nets, and are ignoring malaria.
“We won’t stop registering deaths and high cases of the disease unless attitudes are changed,” Mr Onyai said.
He also said the majority of the people who died were taken to the hospital in severe condition because many initially opted for self-medication which made it hard to save them.
In the 2018/2019 Financial Year, Gulu District registered malaria as the top cause of morbidity with 202,109 cases which translate to 27 per cent of total diagnosis (748,379) conducted in the same year in all public and private health facilities across the district.
In the same year, malaria accounted for 29.3 per cent of all morbidity cases in children under five years whereas it polled second at 5.7 per cent slightly under Anemia (6.7 per cent) as the top cause of mortality throughout the district in the same year.
However, in the 2019/2020 Financial Year, malaria mortality rate stood at 18.7 per cent (60 deaths), lower than 45.6 per cent in 2015/2016. In the 2016/2017 Financial Year, the malaria cases stood at 43.5 per cent and 18.9 per cent in 2017/2018.
Drug resistance
A month ago, researchers at Gulu University discovered that chemicals applied during the Indoor Residual Spray exercise by the Ministry of Health in Northern Uganda were no longer killing the mosquitoes.
Dr Richard Echodu, one of the investigators, said the mosquitoes have adapted to living with those chemicals and developed resistance against the insecticides used in the exercise.
Samples for the research were collected from Gulu, Kitgum, Agago, Oyam districts that had the highest prevalence of malaria including Moroto and Abim districts of Karamoja sub-region.
Prof Elizabeth Opiyo, the principal investigator, said a total of 500 (two-five days old) adult female anopheles reared from larva/pupal collections from various breeding sites were exposed to tests to establish their susceptibility.
“In areas where we have seen there is resistance, definitely, we need to rotate and use other different classes of insecticides than the one in use now because the mosquitoes have developed resistance to pyrethroids, it can be bicarbonates or organophosphates,” Prof Opiyo said.
Although the ministry says a total of 25,000 Ugandans, who visit health facilities daily, are diagnosed with malaria, figures obtained from Malaria Consortium indicated that Northern Uganda has experienced a drop in the number of infections recorded per month.
According to the ministry, clinically diagnosed malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, accounting for 30-50 per cent of outpatient visits at health facilities, 15-20 per cent of all hospital admissions, and up to 20 per cent of all hospital deaths.
