KAMPALA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Cases of the deadly malaria in Uganda have started reducing due to the country's intensified fight against the disease, a top government official said on Wednesday.
Ruth Aceng, minister of health told reporters that insecticide treated nets have proved to reduce child mortality by about 20 percent, decrease clinical cases of malaria by 50 percent and severe malaria by 45 percent.
"The distribution of nets in the districts already covered has had a tremendous decline in the number of malaria cases as seen in the drop in the number of outpatients in many facilities in the districts," said Aceng.
Aceng said the ministry has already distributed over 23 million treated mosquito nets under its second universal coverage campaign to fight malaria.
The distribution was launched in February this year targeting over 25 million people in 109 districts across the country.
"The campaign has so far achieved over 95 percent coverage, with a total of 23.7 million bed nets distributed," said Aceng.
She said the ministry plans to distribute a total of 2.8 million nets in the capital, Kampala and central district of Wakiso by February 2018.
"This intervention is intended to reduce mortality and morbidity of Malaria, which is still the single largest killer disease in Uganda," she said.
According to the 2015 Malaria Indicator Survey, malaria is endemic in approximately 95 percent of the country, affecting over 90 percent of the population. The remaining five percent of the country consists of unstable and epidemic-prone transmission.
