Uganda: urgent health risks: malaria season and Aid cuts in Africa

Africanews (in English)

Uganda: urgent health risks: malaria season and Aid cuts in Africa  Malaria season kicks off this month across much of Africa. This disease remains the deadliest on the continent, particularly affecting children.  READ MORE : http://www.africanews.com/2025/03/10/uganda-urgent-health-risks-malaria-season-and-aid-cuts-in-africa  Subscribe on our Dailymotion channel and receive all the latest news from the continent.    Africanews is available in English and French.  Website : www.africanews.com  Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/africanews.channel/  Twitter : https://twitter.com/africanews

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00:00Malaria season begins this month in many parts of Africa where it is deadliest disease, especially for children.

00:07The Trump administration's decision to reduce USAID's foreign aid contracts by 90%

00:13has raised concern among health officials in Uganda who fear disaster in poor regions.

00:18It's not the complicated version. You only get oral medications at around 25 or 20.

00:25So in total it's around 60,000 Ugandan shillings.

00:28In terms of dollars, that's around, let me see, $20 or $18 or $19 you get.

00:35But if we go to the severe form where you need IVs, in addition they may give you other IV fluids

00:41just because maybe malaria may cause dehydration, you may vomit, you get.

00:45So there the bill is usually way, way too high. It may be three times that amount.

00:50So $20 times three may be around $60, which is really a big figure

00:55when you look at our socioeconomic status of most of the people in our country.

01:00Dr. Jimmy Opigo, in charge of Uganda's malaria control program,

01:06stated that the USAID's top work orders have shifted their focus to disaster preparedness.

01:12Now the disruption has worked on, for example, the logistics system.

01:17You know, the medicines, the test kits, the mosquito nets, the spray operations.

01:23We are constantly consuming these things. They are produced somewhere offshore.

01:28They have to be shipped, warehoused, and moved to service delivery points.

01:34So right now this process has been interrupted.

01:38Meanwhile the service delivery points are exhausting what they had at hand,

01:43which can hardly last one month.

01:46So the catastrophe is really going to ensue or unfold towards the end of this month.

01:55A year of supply chain disruption by the U.S. could lead to 15 million more cases and 107,000 deaths.

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