State of Emergency in Gulu: Malaria Outbreak

July 21, 2009 - 9:05am — Michael Manoochehri
allAfrica.com reports that a State of Emergency has been declared in Gulu municipality due to an outbreak of Malaria. While the second rainy season hasn't arrived yet (will it this year?) it has been sprinkling a little, and this combined with the hot days has created excellent deadly mosquito breeding conditions. I guess I wasn't imagining it when I noticed that the number of mosquitoes in my room were increasing.

From the article:
"Gulu District health department has declared a state of emergency over what authorities have described as a severe outbreak of malaria in the district. The worst hit area is Gulu Municipality while the counties of Omoro and Aswa have registering relatively low number of out patients' attendances, according to statistics released by the health department."


I can't believe how many people I have met who think that (a) Malaria is not a serious illness, and (b) that there is some kind of vaccine for Malaria. No. Malaria is probably the worst disease in the world, and can be completely debilitating for people in affected areas.