Oyam, (UG):- Despite indoor spraying and distribution of bed nets, the Ministry of Health plans to carry out a malaria vaccination program in five selected districts in Lango which include Oyam, Kole, Lira City, Alebtong and Dokolo.
Ismael Kabugu, the Social Behaviour Officer in the Ministry of Health, while speaking at the National Malaria Elimination meeting held at Oyam district Council hall some days ago called on different agencies to promote malaria vaccination exercises to curb malaria prevalence.
“And I want to emphasise this, resources are getting limited this year, so please we need to add just a whole new resource to prevent what we call malaria. We have taken the fight against malaria to us alone, but for now, we are coming here and saying we need to do it collectively with our partners, political, religious, and cultural so that we bring them on board because we believe they have a very big following behind them,” Mr Kabugu said.
Benson Walter Dila, the LC5 Chairman of Oyam District, warned some false prophets who claim they pray and heal malaria, saying it is misleading the public on malaria vaccination.
“People are there in the village with malaria vaccine, they fight themselves, so-and-so has worked with me. They go to call for a witch doctor to come and pray. There are some church leaders, I don’t want to talk about them, they think that they can pray for malaria and malaria goes away. Malaria is a virus, you pray for the soul, you don’t pray for the virus,” Dila warns.
SGT Shilaku James, the RDC of Oyam, welcomed the development and said his office will render full backing in mobilising the masses to embrace a malaria vaccination exercise. “I urge everybody who will be here, that when we leave this place, we go and engage our communities. We ensure we prepare our people.”
He added; “There are other people who take negative propaganda, they are not specialists, they are not medical workers, but they will start creating propaganda against it, so we must package ourselves well, package the message very, very well, and make people understand it, so that we can reduce malaria.”
Malaria cases and deaths in the Lango sub-region can be attributed to the lack of access to indoor residual spraying and inconsistent use of treated bed nets among people at risk for malaria.
There are other factors, too: the region is awash in swamps, which are excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes. So even with indoor residual spraying and mosquito nets, the chances for mosquito bites while outdoors remain high.
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