Fear mosquitoes; so much
Whenever the evening comes, run, please run, run from the mosquitoes, and the bad omen they come with- Malaria.
Ever since the year started, we have given maximum concentration to COVID-19, abandoning the actual killer of Ugandans.
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Sanitizers everywhere, hand washing all the time, masks all over, but have you stopped to make the comparison? W have lost less than 90 to COVID, this is the same number we lose every week to Malaria!
Not trying to downplay one disease and promote the other but hey, over 43 million of the country’s population is at risk of Malaria and of course COVID-19 while having an underlying sickness such as Malaria would speed up one’s chances of succumbing to COVID and vice versa.
Even though Uganda had the second-largest reduction in malaria cases (1.5 million) between 2017 and 2018, the country is still the third-highest contributor of malaria cases and the seventh-highest contributor of malaria deaths, according to the WHO report.
Malaria has a significant negative impact on the economy of Uganda due to decreased productivity, lower school attendance and performance, and reduced foreign investments.
"In recent years, malaria prevalence, incidence, and mortality have all declined steeply. However, this fell short of the targets from the Uganda Malaria Reduction Strategic Plan 2014-2020.
Despite efforts, the Uganda Ministry of Health reported an increase in malaria cases from about one million cases in June 2018 to 1.4 million in June 2019.
Malaria kills between 70,000 to 100,000 people in the country annually, mostly pregnant mothers and children, according to the ministry of health figures.
So whenever the evening comes, put your repellents on, get under your mosquito. Fear the mosquito as much as possible, fear the disease it transmits because Malaria is the world’s biggest killer.
The writer is a private contributor to the Nile Post
