Photo of Komakec an d his mother.
At the beginning of March 2006, 15-month old Komakec Emanuel from Uganda got very sick. His mother Oroma Monica took him to the local health clinic near where they live in Ongako Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) in Gulu district in northern Uganda. Komakec’s body temperature was hot. He was vomiting and convulsing. The doctor assessed the child and confirmed his critical condition and need for treatment. Komakec was immediately admitted to the health center.
The name Komakec in the Acholi language means…’I am unlucky’. Komakec’s mother says she chose this name because she had already lost two sons to malaria before they reached the age of three. When Komakec was diagnosed with the same illness she panicked, imagining the worst. But now she has hope since her son has benefited from a long-lasting insecticide treated net through the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), a $1.2 billion, five-year U.S. government initiative to control malaria in Africa, and life-saving anti-malarial drugs donated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Before having a net, Komakec used to get sick every two months. Since receiving the treated net, his mother says he has not been sick once. Asked how she manages to tie the net given the limited space of her hut, she said that she ties the net up every evening as she spreads out the mat for sleeping and removes it in the morning.
Compiled by Dr. Betty Mpeka, USAID/Uganda, UPHOLD project