Conference abstract
Malaria morbidity among children under 5 years of age: epidemic districts, Northern Uganda, July 2012 to June 2015
Pan African Medical Journal - Conference Proceedings. 2017:1(5).11
Aug 2017.
doi: 10.11604/pamj-cp.2017.1.5.11
Archived on: 11 Aug 2017
Contact the corresponding author
Keywords: Malaria, morbidity, district, Uganda
Oral presentation
Malaria morbidity among children under 5 years of age: Epidemic Districts, Northern Uganda, July 2012 to June 2015
Allen Eva Okullo1,&, Joan Kalyango2, Alex Riolexus Ario1
1Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program, Kampala, Uganda, 2Makerere University Collage of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda
&Corresponding author
Allen Eva Okullo, Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program, Kampala, Uganda
Introduction: a malaria epidemic has been confirmed in ten former IRS districts. Given the recent malaria control interventions, a sustained decline in the malaria cases would have been expected. Thus the need for a descriptive analysis on the trends in malaria morbidity in these districts among under 5yr olds for the past 3 financial years to help inform the Ministry of Health and predict future malaria epidemics. The objective of the analysis was to describe annual seasonal trends and peaks in prevalence in malaria morbidity among under 5yr olds over the past three financial years in former IRS districts. Describe the difference in incidence of malaria for the under 5yr olds among all the districts under study for the given period.
Methods: a desk review of all under 5yr old malaria cases and malaria control interventions for the past three financial years in the given districts were conducted.
Results: there are two malaria seasons each year from April to July and September to November which coincides with the rainy seasons. The peaks in prevalence for all the districts were in June 2015. For the past three financial years, 7/9 districts each had a higher malaria incidence than Lamwo district which has 100% coverage of iCCM (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: the rainy seasons present an opportunity for malaria epidemics, iCCM seems to have an effect in reducing the incidence of malaria among under 5yr olds at health facilities. We recommended surveillance and monitoring of trends in malaria cases especially during the rainy season for early detection of epidemics; and assessment of the actual impact of iCCM on the reduction of malaria incidence.
