Malaria’s Rising Toll in the COVID-19 Shadow

By Roperfree

After the recent Rotarian Malaria Partners webinar with the theme “Malaria’s rising toll in the COVID-19 shadow”

According to Dianne Stewart : Head, Donor Relations, The Global Fund relayed information during the webinar that the global fund had raised almost 40 billion dollars to fight malaria earlier this year and the target to eradicate malaria 2030 was on schedule until COVID 19 hit and everything changed. COVID-19 is derailing the fight against malaria while deaths have doubled in 2020 and pushed back malaria programs 20 years behind schedule. The set back has caused human and financial cost!

                                                              Dianne Stewart of Global Fund

Dianne Stewart further said that we can’t have business as usual because the extra ordinary situation should be answered with extra ordinary response as 28.5 billion dollars will have to be spent in the next 12 months whereas Global fund has about $5 billion and the rest will have to be sourced out from governments and private companies in order make it relevant to eliminate malaria hitting the target of year 2030 while doing the bed net campaigns.

 Prof. Grace Nambatya

Roperfree strongly suggests that it should not be only the bed net campaigns to eradicate malaria single handed because mosquitoes have changed behaviors and many people go to sleep very late due to work, study or social programs so mosquito repellents oils should be regarded as alternative new intervention tool which will close the missing gap in order to eradicate malaria by year 2030.

Malaria has been put in category as an essential service which should be addressed with essential tools such as PPE tools in order to support the program for health/ community outreach workers to offer services in safe environment without fearing catching COVID-19 when they are distributing mosquito bed nets or doing other work in terms of malaria prevention such as; sensitization campaigns or offering secondary solution of using mosquito repellents to fight against malaria which is still number one killer disease in the Sub- Saharan Africa.

                                   Mona of Roperfree, Micheal Mutyaba NDA & Prof.Grace Nambatya

Uganda registered 1st COVID-19 death. A 34 year old female, resident of Namisindwa District who presented with COVID-19 like signs and symptoms: fever, dry cough, headache and difficulty in breathing unlike Canada which has about 112,240 cases, 98,142 recovered & 8,870 deaths and the USA with 4,100,875 cases, 1,942,637 recovered & 146,183 deaths, Unite Kingdom 296,377 cases and 45,501 deaths, South Africa 394,948 cases, 229,175 recovered and 5, 940 deaths, Italy 245,032 cases, 197,628 recovered and 35,082 deaths, Cuba 2,462 cases, 2,326 recovered and 87 deaths, Uganda 1,075 cases, 958 recovered and 1 death by the time of writing this article. Roperfree pinpointed above countries because of close family unit attachment and regarded as home countries.

Uganda has done so well in combating COVID-19 despite economic challenges which have disrupted the entire global economy due to the lockdowns.

According to previous Spanish flu, small pox and other epidemics in history of mankind they were defeated by practicing social isolation and distancing.

On recent speech of July 21, 2020 by the President of Uganda, he encouraged the arcade owners to manufacture goods from within the country which could save their tenants from importing merchandise from abroad such as; China in order to support the home industry and to create jobs for the citizens in order to reduce the unemployment and poverty. His Excellency further went on to applaud the Uganda scientists and the public at large who are working hard to combat COVID-19 and pointed out that COVID-19 which is on our door step and current problem so Ugandans have to provide solution themselves instead of waiting for good Samaritans from abroad.

Roperfree realized that to fight malaria alone while the malaria cases are sky rocketing due to COVID 19 does not make sense so we decided to take initiative by providing solution using the abundance of wealth and technical knowledge to start manufacturing Roperfree Herbal Sanitizers with Aloe Vera moisturizer. The call to join this campaign was initiated during the NDA Herbal Conference with main speakers such; Professor Grace Nambatya the Director of Research at Chemotherapeutic under the Ministry of Health and Michael Mutyaba a Herbal Medicine Regulator under the National Drug Authority which was held in early March when COVID-19 was lingering plus the Presidential initiative call upon to all citizens to find solutions themselves through innovation and science which made a lot of influence as Uganda has long history of good herbal medicinal therapies. On the other hand, Professor Grace Nambatya is at the forefront in training, encouraging and providing the technical knowledge in use of herbal medicinal treatment and manufacturing while working hand in hand with modern medicine following the NDA guidelines under the WHO.

According to the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2030 was developed and launched in response to the World Health Assembly resolution on traditional medicine. The strategy aims to support Member States like Uganda in developing proactive policies and implementing action plans that will strengthen the role traditional medicine plays in keeping the population health.


 https://www.jumia.ug/personal-care/?q=roperfree  
www.roperfree.com 

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