Members of the Parliamentary forum on Malaria and those from the Health Committee of the Parliament agreed to support the ongoing Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Net (LLIN) campaign through increased advocacy and sensitization of the masses.  In addition, they agreed to follow up discussions on tax waivers on medical devices such as  malaria rapid diagnostic tests, lobbying for increased financial resources for health and enforcing accountability in parliament.

This was at an advocacy meeting for the members of the 10th Parliament convened by the Ministry of Health (MoH) with support from partners to brief them about the National Malaria control interventions including the ongoing mass distribution of LLINs recently launched by the Prime Minister of Uganda, Honorable Ruhakana Ruganda.

The Guest of Honor at the advocacy meeting, the Right Honourable Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga thanked MoH for involving the parliament in this campaign because their influence especially at the district and community levels will greatly impact on the success of the LLIN campaign. She called on the MPs to intensively rally their constituencies to properly and consistently use the nets in order to reduce the malaria burden in Uganda.

On the situation of Malaria control in Uganda, the National Malaria Control Program, Program Manager Dr. Jimmy Opigo briefed the Members of Parliament (MP) and partners about the progress made in implementing the Uganda Malaria Reduction Strategic Plan (UMRSP), 2014- 2020, and the plan to accelerate elimination  of the disease from the country adding that malaria deaths have reduced by 40%. He further said that Ministry of Health intends to distribute 24 million nets countrywide and called on the MPs’ support to rally the population to rightly use the long lasting insecticidal nets.

The Acting World Health Organization (WHO Representative in Uganda, Dr. Tarande Constant Manzila highlighted the need for increased advocacy to increase resources and sensitization of the population to sustain the gains made in Malaria reduction. He commended Uganda for the tremendous progress made in Malaria control highlighting the reduced malaria disease and death rates between 2010 and 2014 which saw the country win the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) award received by His Excellency, President Y.K. Museveni at the 28th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa.

Additionally, Dr. Tarande pledged the continued WHO technical to the Ministry of Health to guide interventions, partner coordination for unified action and data generation and analysis to guide decision making.

In order to achieve malaria free world goal by 2030, WHO Global Technical Strategy for malaria advocates for universal access to malaria prevention including consistent use of LLINs, diagnosis and treatment as some of pillars of interventions. It also encourages countries to accelerate efforts towards elimination and attainment of malaria-free status, and to transform malaria surveillance into a core intervention.

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Below:

01. Left to right-Dr. Daniel Kyabayinze (WHO consultant), Dr Jimmy Opigo (Malaria Program Manager), Dr. Tarande Constant ( WHO Representative), Hon. Rebecca Kadaga (Speaker of Parliament– Yellow top)

02. Members of Parliament and partners listen to Dr. Opigo provide a brief on Malaria situation in Uganda