The Minister of Health in Uganda, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has expressed worry about the high rate of mortality among younger women aged between 15 and 49 years in Uganda.
This, she said, while appearing on NTV on Wednesday December 20.
Dr Aceng attributed to the high mortality rate to malaria and othe neonatal diseases.
Neonatal diseases are those with in new borns that can be transferred by the mothers to the new born babies.
Among these is congenital malaria which is the direct infection of an infant with malaria parasites from their mother prior to or during birth. It is spread by an infective mosquito bite after birth of the baby.
According to the Malaria Atlas Project, P. falciparum infection is prevalent in Africa
Available figures show that Uganda has made a commendable progress in reducing malaria transmission from 42% in 2009 to 9% in 2018.
Despite this, in 2020 the country had the 3rd highest global burden of malaria cases and deaths (5.4%) and the 5th highest level of deaths (3.5%).
It also had the highest proportion of malaria cases in East and Southern Africa – 23.2% in 2020.
As such, Dr Aceng says the people of Uganda ought to seek medication as soon as they fall sick saying delays are partly responsible the increased mortality rate.