The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) is set to conduct a countrywide malaria indicator survey with data collection scheduled to start on Sunday.
The results of this survey which is intended to obtain national estimates of the prevalence of malaria and its risk factors in addition to checking the levels of uptake of malaria prevention initiatives will be released after three months.
Speaking at the flag-off event at the Ministry of Health headquarters on Friday, UBOS Executive Director Chris Mukiza revealed that the data collectors will be using tablets and noted that they have put in place mechanisms to monitor and ensure that correct data gathered is what is relied in real time to the central data collection point.
He urged those who will be doing tests to follow the protocols put in place.
Currently, according to Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda is the third most malaria country globally with over 4,000 people still being lost annually despite key interventions that the country has adopted including giving out free insecticide-treated bed nets, malaria prophylaxis among pregnant women and Indoor Residual Spraying in districts with the high burden.
Mukiza reveals that the recent national household census revealed that 87% of households in Uganda own free bed nets but Aceng says all the interventions that the country has employed are only done piecemeal and cannot help eliminate the disease whose current prevalence is estimated at nine percent.
Aceng notes that the results of this survey will help them establish the loopholes and find better ways of bridging such that the country can start thinking about elimination which she says is achievable if things are done right.
However, Uganda last did such a survey in 2015 and yet according to Dr Charles Njuguna, the Acting World Health Organization Uganda Representative such surveys should be done more regularly as data is very important to determine which interventions are working.
He recommends that future surveys should focus on children above five years of age.
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