The Ugandan government has earmarked one million US dollars for tsetse fly control in the affected areas, local media reported on Wednesday.

The executive director for control of trypanosomiasis, Lawrence Semakula, was quoted as saying that the money was earmarked for tsetse fly affected districts especially in rural areas where people are most affected by sleeping sickness.

He said this was a six-year program which would cover the most affected areas of the east African country.

About 9 million people in Uganda are at the risk of contracting sleeping sickness, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO).

"About 500 out of every 100,000 people are attacked by sleeping sickness in the 14 out of the 56 districts annually and only 20 percent of the population there has access to detection and treatment services," the WHO added.

Source: Xinhua