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In September 2007, the government of Uganda declared a State of Emergency in the northeastern regions of the country due to widespread flooding. Thousands of people are homeless, vast acres of farmland are inundated, food crops lost, roads & bridges washed away, schools closed, homes demolished, and conditions ripe for rampant spread of disease.
Malaria kills nearly one million children in Africa every year, and around 100,000 in Uganda. The mosquitoes that transmit malaria breed in standing water. As floods recede, the already enormous overpopulation of mosquitoes is expected to expand, causing a deadly surge in malaria.
Get the quick facts on malaria from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Read what the Ugandan Ministry of Health says about the impact of malaria.
View a pictorial flood report from the Pilgrim office. (PDF; requires the Adobe Acrobat viewer.)
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To forestall this epidemic, Move on Malaria, a partnership between local Ugandan Christian relief agency PILGRIM, the World Health Organization’s Uganda office, Ugandan governmental ministries of public health and disaster preparedness, and other non-profits, has developed a comprehensive plan to eliminate mosquitoes, their larvae, and malaria parasites in the flooded areas, working towards permanent eradication of malaria in the region.
We eliminated malaria in the U.S. We CAN do it in Africa.
To move against malaria on all fronts, MOVE ON MALARIA will reduce the numbers of mosquitoes by spraying 1.4 million huts, limit mosquito-human contact by adding 150,000 bed nets to those already in circulation, treat all active malaria cases, and distribute anti-malarials to healthy individuals in the Teso region of Uganda. MoM partner organizations are providing larvicides & medicines.
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Wherever mosquitoes are over-abundant, public health is threatened. Move On Malaria seeks to reduce their number and ride them of the malaria pest, while at the same time curing the disease in humans. If both humans and mosquitoes can be kept entirely pest-free for a month or more, malaria can be eradicated, region by region.
We did it in the U.S. and, with YOUR help, it can happen in Africa too!
Hut Spraying
Indoor residual spraying (IRS) defends particularly well against Ugandan mosquitoes, who prefer both to feed indoors & to rest afterwards on indoor walls. Hut spraying breaks the cycle of infection in two ways: 1.) by repelling mosquitoes from human dwellings for up to six months, and 2) by killing any mosquitoes who do get in while they rest after feeding. Females requires blood meals to gestate eggs, so this second effect prevents a whole round of mosquito reproduction.
Bed Nets
Treated nets protect sleepers from nocturnal bites. Distrbuted both to pregnant women and to malaria sufferers, they protect the vulnerable unborn as well as reducing the amount of infected blood available to mosquitoes.
Effective Medicines
Lifesaving new artemisinin-based therapies immediately treat all active cases of malaria, a humanitarian and public health necessity, as malaria kills 100,000 Ugandans each year.
Preventative Treatment
Anti-malarials prevent multiplication of the pest in the liver and halt the disease. Given to all healthy persons, they make it next to impossible for mosquitoes to find infected persons to bite.
$10 buys a bednet.
Includes assessment, distribution & monitoring.
$60 treats 20 huts.
Includes volunteer training, safety equipment, assessment & reporting.
To reach the 2.8 million people in Teso district with these life-saving interventions, Move On Malaria & partners need just $5 million dollars. Over half a million has been raised, but we need your help!
Pilgrim is a local Ugandan aid agency working in the flood–affected regions. We are spearheading this innovative plan to bring together Americans, indigenous Africans, and international disease control experts.
You're welcome to browse our full web site or you can call our Seattle office at +1 (206) 706-0350.
