Health workers in the capital of Upper Nile State are carrying out an anti-malaria and environmental sanitation campaign in the city. The effort began in Malakal at the end of July and will continue until the end of the rainy season.

The city has witnessed a sharp rise in the incidence of malaria recently amid fears of increasing mortality due to the outbreak. Dr. Vivianna Abyan, who works in the anti-malaria department in Malakal, in an interview with Radio Tamazuj said that the campaign aims to reduce the sharp rise in the rates of malaria in the city due to the low health awareness in the vast majority of the city, as well as deterioration of the living standards of the citizens.

Dr. Abyan added that the infection rate was related to inability of those on the outskirts to leave these infected parts of the city, as well as the increased population in the region after arrival of returnees who have been living in Khartoum for a long time. She conjectured that this may have contributed to the high malaria incidence as they lack immunity to malaria.

The campaign aims for significant interaction between authorities and civilians to maximize awareness of environmental sanitation, said Dr. Abyan, emphasizing cleaning neighborhoods and filling ponds and swamps with sand.