One million people suffer from malaria annually

Rwandan Minister of Health Ezechias Rwabuhihi has said one million Rwandans suffer from malaria every year, the Rwanda News Agency reported on Monday. Speaking at a one-day seminar on malaria organised by the National Programme for the Fight against Malaria - which brought together participants from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda - he said the epidemic was the single highest cause of death in the country. Rwabuhihi urged the members of the East African Monitoring Network of Anti-Malaria Treatment to pool their resources by sharing the findings of researchers in the respective countries. "We need to adopt common anti-malaria therapies that offer a higher efficacy. It's high time our researchers joined hands in finding solutions to this scourge," he said. "This needs us to lay down concrete strategies for diversifying public awareness, early treatment, use of mosquito nets, application of better and more efficient anti-malaria drugs."