At the local primary school it was devastatingly clear how prevalent malaria was in Apac. When asked who had been infected before, out of the 300 or so children gathered in the schoolyard, all but eight raised their hands. All but eight had had malaria.
However, these children were the lucky ones: their parents had somehow managed to get the money together to buy the medicine needed to treat the disease.
At the hospital we found a very different situation. On arrival early one Monday, we found the admissions area overflowing. According to the manager, Dr. Achana, it was actually a quiet day. Throughout the morning people kept coming; some had walked overnight, others had been transported on bicycles, a few lucky ones had got a lift in a car.
Dr. Achana said his team were struggling to deal with a massive caseload of malaria victims. They see up to 5000 patients a week, the majority of which are children under five and pregnant women.
It was evident the hospital was understaffed and ill equipped. On the busy wards, families told us they had to go outside to private clinics and buy the drugs, drips, syringes and medical equipment for their lived ones. This really was the frontline in the pandemic and these people were in a dire situation.
One of the most disheartening things I heard was from the hospital pharmacist after I asked what happened when people can't afford the medical supplies they need. He just shrugged his shoulders and said: 'you die'. That was it, very simple and to the point, which tells you all you need to know.
The devastation was also evident outside of the town in the poorer rural areas. In one village, we met a family who were burying their seven-month-old daughter, Leya. Staggeringly, she was the 10th person to die of malaria in the village in the past three months.
Leya's grandfather explained that malaria was crippling their livelihoods too. Villagers were frequently struck down with the symptoms of malaria, which rendered them unable to work in the fields, unable to get their kids to school or conduct any semblance of a normal life.
During my research for this film I found there is hope and there are solutions. A simple and effective rollout of preventive measures and treatment can have stunning results.
In Africa, notably in Eritrea, Sao Tome and Principe, Rwanda, Zambia and Zanzibar, effective malarial control interventions have almost halved the number of deaths. However, in Uganda the Health Ministry report that 370 people continue to die from malaria every day.
By the time I left it was clear to me that this rate could be drastically reduced if the anti-malarials, basic medicine and preventative measures just simply got through to those who desperately need them. Instead, widespread corruption and the theft of international aid and government supplies was scuppering Uganda's fight against the world's biggest killer.
