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Malaria, pneumonia tops hospital admissions

FILE PHOTO: An elderly woman gets tested for malaria

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Malaria and pneumonia were the most common diseases for which children and adults seeking treatment in the 2018/19 financial year. This is according to the Annual Health Sector Performance report that was released on Wednesday.

The report shows that 84 million people were outpatients department while 1.6 million were admitted.

According to the report, 660,781 children and adults were admitted suffering from Malaria and pneumonia.

At the outpatients ward, a total of 19,409,567 children and adults were treated for both the conditions with 10,483,412 cases for malaria and 8,926,155 cases for pneumonia.

Dr Jimmy Opigo, the head of the Malaria control programme attributed the high number of malaria admissions to the malaria outbreak that has affected 65 districts.

“High cases of malaria were reported in private health facilities compared to the government ones but this was mainly during the outbreak that occurred mid this year,” Dr Opigo said.

In the outpatient department, other common conditions that were treated included; 1.8 million cases of urinary tract infections, 1.6 million gastrointestinal disorders and 1.4 million skin diseases.

Other conditions for which admissions were carried out were; 107,549 injuries, 78,614 cases of respiratory infections and 70,000 cases of acute diarrhoea.

Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister of health says that further investigations are needed to ascertain why the number of people affected by pneumonia is still high even after vaccination uptake is high.

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