A three-day anti-malaria training program opened in Kampala, Uganda on Monday as part of China's efforts to join force with Uganda to fight malaria.

"Malaria has serious implications on all aspects of our lives, at individual, family, community level and at national level. We can not afford to keep silent and live with it," said Stephen Malinga, Uganda's minister of health, who opened the training program in Kampala on Monday.

He also hailed the Chinese government for financing the course, saying it is an indication of the growing cordial relation between the two countries.

"There are a lot of technologies in China, in medicine, which the world is freshly discovering. It is the challenge for participants in this short course to utilize this opportunity to learn from Chinese experts," Malinga said.

Ministry of Health statistics indicate that malaria kills over 80,000 Ugandans per year, mostly pregnant women and children, and still ranks as the number one killer in the east African country.

He Shijing, the charged affairs of the Chinese embassy in Kampala, said the Chinese government is fulfilling its pledge of donating anti-malaria medicine and carrying out anti-malaria training programs in Uganda.

"The Chinese experts are here, ready and willing to work hard together with their Ugandan colleagues to reduce the influence of malaria, to share experience and to improve Ugandan people's health through direct contribution of anti-malaria medicine and treatment expertise," he added.

In recent months, various Chinese anti-malaria drugs have been introduced on the Ugandan market as the Ugandan government embarked on various measures, including the indoor spraying of the DDT, to combat the disease spread by female anopheles mosquitoes.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2006)