Kampala, Uganda | URN | Five children are admitted each day in Acute Care Unit of Mulago National Referral hospital with convulsions and anemia resulting from malaria infection.
Dr. Richard Idro, a Pediatrician in the Unit, says this situation is unlike weeks ago when they were registering four to five cases a week.
“It’s not only very young children who we used to see with such complications but now mostly bigger children in primary school with cerebral and severe malaria,” he said.
Adding that, “Some of the patients are presenting with complications that have previously been rare with malaria patients.”
Idro says colleagues from other hospitals in Kampala are also seeing an increase in the number of malaria patients.
However, the disease had for the last few years been almost eliminated from especially Kampala with outbreaks mainly being registered in Northern Uganda.
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In 2017, the country was recognized for being the best in Africa for innovatively controlling malaria infections.
In an earlier interview with this publication, Michael Mukundane from the Uganda National Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS) said that the demands for blood from the unit had increased following the malaria outbreak.
