East African Community and partner states launch Great Lakes Malaria Initiative

On April 14th, Ministers of Health of East African states launched a Great Lakes Malaria Initiative (GLMI) as an effort to eliminate the killer disease in the region.

This comes in at a time when there has been no cross-border collaboration to address Malaria yet it has been a burden to all  member states.

The Great Lakes region of East and Central Africa that comprises of member states like Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan all share risk factors like Climate Change, water bodies and cross border movement hence a great burden in the transmission of Malaria.

While speaking at the launch in Busia county in Kenya, the Uganda State Minister of Health and General duties Anifa Kawooya said that the collaboration in fighting Malaria by the members of the Great Lakes Region is going to help them all in achieving the dream of eliminating this killer disease in the region.

This launch, also a milestone in strengthening regional cooperation has come at a time when the rest of the community is in preparations to join the world in commemorating the World Malaria Day that is due to be held later this month.

“No one can walk the journey alone especially when it comes to cross border pandemics, there is need to join hands together and not only those in leadership but also those in communities” Kawooya added

According to Kawooya, its also key to share data collection and information plus surveillance as this collaboration also helps in solving the general problem.

Kawooya also pledged to fellow regional Health Ministers that Uganda will continue working together with the community towards cross-border pandemics and to ensure that elimination of Malaria is no longer a dream but achievable.

Kawooya also thanked H.E Uhuru Kenyatta who is also the patron in resource mobilization of the initiative and also the community for its collaboration and partnerships that has helped in achieving different milestones.