Health ministry signs pact to raise malaria awareness
A mosquito. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- The partnership, which started in 2019, has been renewed for the next five years to complement the ministry’s mandate to improve the health sector of Uganda.
The Health ministry has signed a pact with a communication firm to raise awareness of malaria and other non-communicable diseases across the country.
Mr Basil Tushabe, the executive director of Communication for Development Foundation Uganda (CDFU), said since they have had a successful awareness campaign in Covid-19, the same can be done to malaria.
“We started this partnership three years ago and we have been leading the designing of communication strategies and inventions to sensitise the public about the virus that’s how we saw the drastic fall in cases and lockdown is no longer necessary, we look forward to achieving the same for the many other diseases in our country,” he said.
Dr Richard Kabanda, the commissioner of Health Promotion, Education and Communication at the ministry, said most diseases are avoidable if people have enough information about the prevention measures.
“... But we also look forward to ensuring these communications influence people’s behaviours towards putting into practice these prevention measures and, therefore, we look forward to continuing the work with CDFU,” he said.
Mr Kabanda was speaking at the celebration of the 20 years of existence of the communication firm and the launch of 2022/26 strategic plan in Kampala last week.
At the onset of Covid, CDFU set up a toll-free call centre for Covid where people would call in to report cases, ask for information and seek counselling services.
The partnership, which started in 2019, has been renewed for the next five years to complement the ministry’s mandate to improve the health sector of Uganda.
Mr Tushabe said one of the core aims of the partnership is to reduce infection numbers of diseases such as malaria, TB, and lifestyle diseases.
“We are aiming at ensuring that at least 85 percent of the Ugandan population has basic knowledge like the use of mosquito nets, spraying to protect against malaria,” he said.
The communication firm will also assist in the distribution of products such as mosquito nets and lifestyle kits.
WHO statistics
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 20.4 million malaria cases and more than 30,900 estimated deaths are reported annually, approximately 65,897 of diabetes, and more than 20 million cases of lifestyle diseases in Uganda.
