UGANDA – The Ugandan Government has introduced a new US$38 million health project with an aim to reduce malaria infections in the country by 50 percent over the next five years in collaboration with the United States government.

The Uganda Malaria Reduction Activity will also help reduce malaria-related deaths by 75 percent in regions with the highest malaria burden namely West Nile, Lango, Acholi, Karamoja and Busoga.

It will facilitate malaria control and elimination to save lives, ease access to medical supplies to communities and health facilities as well as efficiently train health workers to properly diagnose and treat malaria.

It will provide high-quality malaria prevention and treatment services that are decentralized and managed at the local level as well as strengthen partnerships with the private sector in the fight against malaria.

The Uganda Malaria Reduction Activity will be implemented by a consortium led by John Snow Inc. to accelerate the objectives of the Ministry of Health National Malaria Control Division’s Uganda Malaria Reduction and Elimination Strategic Plan 2021–2025.

The United States Mission in Uganda will additionally support the new malaria reduction project through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The malaria project will further contribute to achievements of the United States and Ugandan partners through the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) that seeks to reduce malaria burden in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For instance, malaria rates in Ugandan children under five years old have declined 77 percent since 2006 while overall child mortality rates have dropped by 53 percent under PMI.

The new malaria project has a strong community focus to ensure Ugandan citizens are not burdened by malaria as it is a preventable disease that disproportionately affects pregnant women and children under five years of age.

Consequently, the project will bring renewed energy to the fight against malaria, accelerate progress in the health sector along with optimizing the use of existing and new tools to tackle current and emerging health challenges.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also recommended the use of the world’s first malaria vaccine to prevent malaria among children aged six months to five years who live in moderate- to high-transmission settings.

Additionally, the health organization has urged countries to scale up innovation and deploy new tools to battle malaria while advocating for equitable access to prevention and treatment to further build health system resilience.

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