By Hope Okeny | Project Leader
In Uganda Malaria continues to be a major public health problem accounting for about 30–50% of all outpatient consultations and 35% of hospital admissions and a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Pregnant women and their unborn children are vulnerable to malaria. With the current malaria outbreak in our district of Gulu, our main concern is for the expectant mothers and the children under five years old. This situation is so real, even in our health facility. Atim has been a regular attendant of the antenatal clinic, but this morning when she visited the clinic, she told the nurse that she was not feeling well, she felt tired and weak. Because of her symptoms and the current outbreak, the nurse suspected malaria and ordered the necessary tests. Examination of Atim’s blood under the microscope indeed confirmed her suspicion and Atims fears that she has malaria. On the blood smear, upto 6 percent of her red blood cells were infected, indicating a rather severe episode. She was immediately geiven treatment, giving her drugs for malaria that are safe in pregnancy. The nurse told her that she was concerned about her baby, because malaria can be harmful on pregnant mothers. During the next week, Atim remained weak and ill, and sometimes she even had hallucinations. She remained on bed rest for more days until she began to feel better. Malaria can increase the risk of negative outcomes such as premature delivery, miscarriage and stillbirth. Gulu district like many other districts in Northern Uganda are grappling with malaria outbreak. We seek to you our well-wishers and friends to support us with anti malarials and human resource to attend to the increased number of patients. We are a small but committed team, but with the current situation we cannot do it alone. I appeal to you to support us manage this situation; you have done it in the past and believe you will do it again. We need your support more than ever. P.S. We always have equipment needs at the clinic. If any of you works for an organization that may be able to help us, please let me know! You can contact me directly anytime at: cdo4uga@gmail.com
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