Uganda: Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project

Current Situation

Background and Statistics

Like any country in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda is struggling to beat malaria, with a current prevalence rate of 19%. In Uganda, the highest incidences of malaria are recorded in the districts of Apac and Oyum, which neighbor Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement where RMF is implementing a primary healthcare program. RMF has been a UNHCR partner in the settlement since 2008, and we have continued expanding our team and services to support the settlement’s growing population, which has now reached over 100,000. To effectively implement this program, RMF is running 4 stationary health facilities and numerous outreach posts in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. The stationary health facilities include Panyadoli Health Centre III, Panyadoli Hills Health Centre II, Nyakadot Health Centre II, and the Reception Centre Clinic.

Malaria Prevention and Treatment

In Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, the fight against malaria remains urgent: 65% of outpatient consultations are malaria cases, and 60% of our inpatient admissions are cases of severe malaria. 75% of these admissions are children below 5 years of age and 10% are pregnant mothers. On a wider scale, it is reported that most deaths in Uganda are caused by severe malaria, especially when victims delay reporting to a health facility. RMF is fighting malaria using both preventive and curative strategies:

Preventive Strategy

Education and Distributions

We are implementing the following preventive measures to save lives in the refugee and host communities of Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement:

• Every morning, health education is provided in the outpatient departments. Here, patients and family members are taught malaria prevention strategies: to clear brush around the home, remove stagnant water near the home so that mosquitos don’t have breading grounds, and sleep under a treated mosquito net.
• In the health facilities, all patients sleep under treated mosquito nets.
• Every year, RMF and partners conduct massive mosquito net distributions, followed by mosquito net installation exercises.
• RMF has created strong Village Health Teams (VHTs) that help to mobilize residents of the settlement and educate them on how to prevent malaria, identifying those are sick and linking them to a health facility with delay.
• In order to prevent malaria in pregnant mothers, Fansidar tablets are given to all pregnant mothers in their second and third trimesters.
• Health workers are provided with additional knowledge on the management of malaria, mostly during continuous medical education sessions that are conducted the health facilities on a weekly basis.

Curative Strategy

Medications and Emergency Services

To save the lives of those who have contracted malaria in the refugee and host communities of Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, RMF employs the following curative measures:

• We ensure that sufficient antimalarials are stocked at the facilities, including artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) for simple malaria and injectable artesunate for severe malaria.
• RMF also ensures that adequate malaria testing kits and reagents are available at the facilities.
• To ensure effective emergency services, 3 standby ambulances are available to provide rapid response.