Patients wait for malaria drugs at Awach health centre IV last Friday. PHOTO BY JOHN OKOT
Gulu- Despite several interventions by government and other stakeholders to combat malaria in Acholi sub-region, the number of people reporting at medical facilities with the disease has gone up.
At Ongako Health Centre III in Gulu District, medical workers have expressed fear about the upsurge in malaria infections. The in-charge of the facility, Ms Florence Lalam, said since the month began, about 100 people are diagnosed with malaria at the facility daily.
Ms Lalam said this has increased the workload of the medical workers at the facility, which has only six medical staff.
“We don’t know what is happening; previously the epidemic had decreased. We used to get 20 to 30 patients but this has now increased to 100 in a day,” she said.
“This made us to work even during night hours since we cannot leave patients who have come to seek medical attention.”
According to Ms Teddy Odera, a records officer at health centre, at least three patients have been referred to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital for the past three weeks due to severe malaria. No deaths have been recorded.
The district malaria focal point person, Mr John Opwonya, said they are currently facing a shortage of drugs and hence village health teams (VHTs) cannot reach out to the villages.
“At the moment, we cannot say the epidemic is out of the district, but rather we have run out of anti-malarial drugs thus hindering our progress in the fight,” Mr Opwonya said, adding that a requisition was sent out to the National Medical Stores.
Get early treatment
Acting district health officer Robert Ongom recently appealed to the people to go for early treatment and ensure that they sleep in treated mosquito nets.
Statistics indicate that between April and October, 217,863 (49 per cent) cases of malaria were recorded with 72 deaths registered in Gulu District. In the same period, 606,891 cases were recorded with 272 deaths registered in the whole of Acholi sub-region.
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