[Uganda] Malaria kills 320 Ugandans daily

From New Vision

By Milton Olupot and Charles Ariko

UGANDA loses an average of 320 people daily to malaria, a symposium on the disease heard in Kampala yesterday.

Dr. Myers Lugemwa told a two-day symposium that malaria remains one of the most serious global health problems and a leading cause for childhood morbidity and mortality.

The symposium, under the theme ‘molecular biology and immunology in malaria vaccine development,’ is organised by Makerere university and the university of California, San francisco.

The Uganda Malaria Surveillance Programme and the African Malaria Network Trust are part of the organisers of the symposium that will be followed by a three-day workshop.

About 70 participants from about 20 African countries, the US and Europe are taking part in the symposium, focussing on malaria treatment, control and research.
Lugemwa said research had shown that malaria had killed half of the global population since the stone age.

A paper by Prof. Fred Wabwire and Dr. Adoke Yeka from the malaria surveillance project said resistance to the accessible and cheap drugs poses a threat to malaria control.