More than 10 districts in Northern Uganda have experienced an outbreak of Malaria for the last six months.  Guilin Pharma, the innovator of injectable artesuante, has been requested by Ministry of Health Uganda to provide an urgent supply of Artesun to the country to treat severe malaria patients.

This was first realized in the month of June.15, due to the increased number of admissions and outpatient reports captured from health facilities in the region. The districts that have witnessed the malaria outbreak are; Lamwo, Gulu, Kitgum, Oyam, Agago, Apac, Amuru, Kole, Nwoya and Pader. The numbers of malaria cases there have increased over ten folds. Data so far collected indicates that Kitgum is the most affected district. According to National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) a total of 112,000 cases have been registered in the ten districts. More than 253 deaths were recorded especially in the first three months, among which162 deaths were recorded in health facilities and the rest were in the community.

This outbreak of malaria was the cessation of the Indoor Residue Spraying (IRS) which resulted into proliferation of the vectors, and increased infectious bites in a population with reduced immunity to Malaria due to the near elimination of Malaria in the region through IRS. All the districts witnessing an outbreak were the ones where IRS has been conducted over the past years. In 2014 the Ministry of Health distributed more than 10 million units of insecticide misquote nets in the country. However, the most challenging part of malaria control in this country now seems to be a very high percentage of severe malaria cases reported, which is more than 15% of total malaria cases.

MOH has initiated many emergency measures through NMCP to ensure effective treatment of patients. Antimalarial medicines including first line and second line ACTs, medicines for severe malaria treatment and other medical supplies have been delivered urgently to all the 10 districts.

As of today, the Uganda National Medical Store (NMS) and Joint Medical Store (JMS) have dispatched 255,700 vials of Artesun (artesunate for injection 60mg) into all health facilities in the north region.

Although there is such outbreak of malaria but the mortality rates has been controlled at a low level due to the widely use of Artesun injection. Since its launch in 2012, Artesun has been well accepted by the local healthcare professionals due to its high quality standard and efficacy on severe malaria patients.

It is expected that the prevalence of malaria cases will remain the same even in the coming 6 months. Looking into high demand of Artesun injection, Guilin Pharma, the innovator of injectable artesuante, has been requested by NMCP Uganda to provide an urgent shipment of 400,000 vials of Artesun to the country to help save more lives.

The local team of Guilin Pharma (GPSC) has also been requested by NMCP Uganda to provide technical supports to the healthcare staffs of the regions to use the drug properly through joint CMEs and job aid materials. Besides the joint training activities, the Guilin Pharma field force has kept on organizing different conductive educational activities in every remote region of the malaria outbreak. Since July 2015 the GPSC team has reached more than 5 districts and conducted 10 CMEs at various hospitals independently.

Guilin Pharma is a company specialized in antimalarials and a partner to fight against malaria. We always prepare ourselves to take one step ahead to support country in malaria outbreak situation.