Uganda’s scrapping of taxes and tariffs on mosquito nets and insecticides used in the fight against malaria has set an excellent example for other malaria-endemic countries, including most in the Great Lakes region and East Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated on Wednesday. Uganda was the fastest country to follow up on a pledge made at the African Malaria Summit in Nigeria in April, when it scrapped the tariffs in its June budget, a WHO press release said. Tanzania had been the first African country to take concerted action on the ‘malaria tax’ last year, reducing the combined total of taxes and trade tariffs to 5 percent and making mosquito nets more affordable at an average US $3.50, it added. Rwanda, Congo, the Central African Republic, Kenya and Sudan are high-tariff countries, taking 42 percent or more on the cost of mosquito nets and malaria insecticides, according to statistics cited in the WHO statement. Burundi and Tanzania are low-tariff countries, with takings between 5 percent and 25 percent. Malaria kills more than one million people a year worldwide - with nine out of 10 cases in Africa - but could be prevented by using insecticides and bed nets to stop transmission, if the price of these were not completely out of reach of most Africans.
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