What is your candidate’s promise on fighting Malaria?

The Presidential elections are at least 40 days away, while the elections for other positions are within an extra few days after that.

This is the time to listen to different manifestos and make careful decisions before we cast a ballot that will confine us to the policies of that particular individual for the next five years.

It is therefore incumbent on us to make the correct decisions because we are the most affected if the choices, we make turn out wrong, while we stand to benefit handsomely if we place the right choices in the box.

On a specific note, what are the different leaders telling us about the fight against Uganda’s leading cause of death, Malaria?

The campaigns have had COVID-19 more pronounced than Malaria yet the latter is a bigger killer of men and women.

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.

Malaria kills between 7,000 to 10,000 people in the country annually, mostly pregnant mothers and children, according to the ministry of health figures.

This means that at least 500 people a month and that translates to about 16.4 people per day.

Still, the number does not make as much sense, maybe let us translate it to something closer to our daily lives.

Imagine that each day we wake up to the news of a fully packed taxi crashing, leaving all occupants dead.

In the normal (pre-COVID times), without social distancing required, a taxi was licensed to carry at least 14 passengers.  Under circumstances where you are over packed, you could find yourselves seated about 17 in the same taxi.

Now, if we are to lose 17 people per day due to Malaria, or let us stick to 16.4, meaning 16 adults and a baby. This means that u get such a taxi and ram it into a wall, killing all occupants.

It is true the Ministry of Health has helped reduce this number significantly with at least 60 million Mosquito nets distributed just in the last 6 years.

Malaria, however, remains the leading cause of death, just in 2019 1.4m people in Uganda were diagnosed with Malaria!

Now is the time to put all our leaders on the spot, what does your candidates' manifesto say in this regard.

What plans do they have for the pregnant women, the children and the hospitals?

In July this year, the government flagged off the distribution of 27 million mosquito nets as the country renewed its fight against malaria.

As we wait to listen to the plans of our politicians, let us take this chance to correctly use the mosquito nets to avoid catching Malaria, or else we may not live to see a secured future or a new Uganda.

 

The writer is a private contributor to the Nile Post