KAMPALA – The ministry of health Permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwiine has revealed that they will be distributing 27 million mosquito nets to all districts across the country.
Flagging off the mosquito net trucks, Atwiine said malaria cases diagnosed and treated increased by 56% between January and April 2020.
“We’ve flagged-off distribution of mosquito nets to districts pending official launch. For the first time Global Fund and partners are entirely using government systems to implement a programme of this nature. We are grateful for the confidence developed and pledge optimal performance,” she said.
Atwiine said they were not able to start as scheduled because of the lockdown but now that it has been partially lifted, they can continue as planned.
“We expect to complete this exercise by the end of this calendar year,” she said.
She added that they’ve developed ICT capacity to account for every single mosquito net given to every single household through a robust mobile phone reporting system.
“For all batches delivered, a detailed message will be sent to key stakeholders from National to local area level for follow up,” said the permanent secretary.
According to Atwiine, the first wave will go to 25 districts.
“The 25 districts were selected depending on the disease burden. We are starting with districts that were affected by flooding in the Easterm region and those, most especially in Northern Uganda, that have recorded higher cases of malaria,” she told the media.
According to MoH report of 2004, malaria death ranged between 70,000 to 100,000 before it was reduced in 2018.
