Shingles (read herpes zoster): It is a painful condition caused by herpes zoster, the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once you had a chickenpox (and many adults have had the disease at the same point in their lives), the virus doesn’t leave your body.

Instead it takes up residence in the nerves near the spine, where it lies dormant, usually for the rest of your life. Sometimes however, herpes zoster is triggered back into activity.

The disease is caused by herpes zoster virus and weakened immune system. The Longman’s dictionary defines shingles as “Shingles is a disease caused by an infection of certain nerves and producing pain red spots often in a band around the waist.” The disease can be treated but it is fatal when neglected. In Uganda, records in the ministry of health indicate that the disease kills over 178 people in a year.

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Antiviral medicines like tamiflu, and other supportive treatment that can effectively treat the illness are available in the ministry of health in the case of Uganda. You also need to drink a lot of fruits and have enough time to rest.

Influenza is a respiratory disease that is caused by influenza virus that is related to a virus that regularly causes diseases in pigs. The spread of influenza can be stopped under the following ways:

Always sneeze or cough into a handkerchief or tissues. The minister for health in Uganda government Christine Androa says the disease can be stopped by people washing their hands thoroughly with soap and water, especially after touching the mouth and nose or surfaces that are potentially contaminated.

The minister, while speaking in an interview urged people to reduce the time they spend in crowded places whenever they hear that there is an outbreak of influenza in any part of the world.

It is also advised to improve air flow in your houses/homes by opening windows. Further more it is advised to avoid close contact with people who show influenza like symptoms (try to maintain a distance of about one meter if possible).

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Seasonal influenza epidemics occur every year in many countries including America, England, South Africa and Austria. Countries are able to treat flu with vaccines and our bodies can fight the known infections as well.

A flu epidemic is a world wide epidemic caused by a new virus to which the populations will have no immunity and perhaps no medicine.

How do I prevent the spread of influenza A (H1N1)?

The main route of transmission of the influenza (H1N1) virus is similar to seasonal flu, via droplets that are expelled through sneezing or coughing. You may stop the spread of influenza by: avoiding close contact with people who show influenza like symptoms.

Always sneeze into a handkerchief or tissue, wash your hands with soap, reduce the time you spend in crowded places and improve air flow in your homes by opening windows.

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The early signs and symptoms of influenza A (H1N1) are flue-like, including fever, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and runny nose. Reports by the Uganda’s ministry of health, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Kampala office also indicates that sometimes vomiting and or diarrhea is part of the symptoms of influenza.

Can people contract influenza through eating pork? The answer is a big NO! Dr. Christine Androa says that influenza A (H1N1) flu viruses are not transmitted through food (or eating pork). You can not get the virus from eating properly handed and cooked pork, so it is safe to eat your pork even during an outbreak of influenza.

How to kill an influenza virus? The influenza virus can be killed by cooking temperatures above 70 degrees centigrade. If you eat food from an animal that was sick or had died before it was slaughtered you are taking major risks of getting other infections and not influenza A (H1N1) virus.

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The world a couple of years ago experienced a new influenza disease outbreak which was reported in more than 40 countries around the world and claimed over 95 human lives.

According to doctors and other medical experts, Influenza is a respiratory disease that is caused by influenza virus that is related to a virus that regularly causes diseases in pigs.

When people infected with influenza cough or sneeze, infected droplets get on their hands, drop on the surface or are dispersed into the air.

Therefore another person can breathe in contaminated air or touch infected hands or surfaces and get exposed to influenza disease. Doctor David Ddumba of Nsambya hospital, formerly a worker at Mulago hospital (Uganda), says that to prevent the spread of influenza, people should cover their mouth and nose with a tissue whenever coughing, and wash their hands frequently.

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Influenza is a respiratory disease that is caused by influenza virus that is related to a virus that regularly causes diseases in pigs. The spread of influenza can be stopped under the following ways:

Always sneeze or cough into a handkerchief or tissues. The minister for health in Uganda government Christine Androa says the disease can be stopped by people washing their hands thoroughly with soap and water, especially after touching the mouth and nose or surfaces that are potentially contaminated.

The minister, while speaking in an interview urged people to reduce the time they spend in crowded places whenever they hear that there is an outbreak of influenza in any part of the world.

It is also advised to improve air flow in your houses/homes by opening windows. Further more it is advised to avoid close contact with people who show influenza like symptoms (try to maintain a distance of about one meter if possible).

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RABIES refers to as fatal viral infection which is transmitted to humans through the bite of rabid domestic animals like dogs, or wild animals such as foxes.

In most cases symptoms of rabies take 10 days to three months to show out, but the symptoms may vary from one week to a year, depending on the site of the bite and the rabies viral load in the human body.

The doctors at the Rabies clinic in Entebbe sub district say that if a person is bitten on the head the symptoms of rabies present in a shorter time. This is because the nearer to the brain, the shorter the incubation period of rabies.

Some of the symptoms of rabies are:- the virus spread through the central nervous system and damages the brain and the spinal cord. The initial symptoms are fever, pain or unexplained tingling, pricking or burning sensation at the wound side. Other symptoms are pain and difficulty in swallowing, abdominal pain, a lot of thick and sticky saliva as well as restlessness. In the late stages, the child gets mental confusion, convulsions, paralysis, hydrophobia [fear of water]. The victim may get into comma and suffer heart and respiratory failure.

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If confirmed, this could bring the death toll to six since a fresh outbreak of the disease was announced on Friday last week.
Health experts say the deceased was admitted at Rushoroza health centre three in Kabale district after he presented with Marburg symptoms.

Meanwhile the number of confirmed marburg patients admitted now stands at six.

According to the health ministry spokseperson Rukia Nakamatte of the six, five are admitted at Kabale while one is still in Mulago.
She however adds that the patient admitted at Mulago hospital is  recovering steadily.

The ministry is currently monitoring a total of 132 people who had direct contact with the people who died of Marburg earlier.
Sound Nakamate

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Cervical cancer is the most common form of cancers affecting most women in East African countries of Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. In Uganda alone every year close to 3,577 women get diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 2,464 die from it, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report.

But cervical cancer is also the most preventable type of cancers worldwide. Cervical cancer is affecting at least 7.32 million of Uganda’s population consisting of women in their reproductive age.

The research from the Ministry of Health in Uganda shows that about 33.6% of the women in Uganda have the human papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer.

Across the world, cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer among women aged between 15-44 years. But in Uganda cervical cancer ranks as the first most common form of cancer, and most of the people affected die in less than five years.

Dr. Gerald Mutungi, the programme manager for Non-Communicable Diseases prevention and control at the Health ministry, says that Uganda plans to immunize women against cervical cancer in schools and health centres. The girls are vaccinated with the Gardasil vaccine.

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Many people in Uganda are living with chronic hepatitis B infection, an infection that causes liver cancer according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country advisor Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) surveillance, Dr. Innocent Mwesigye.

He says that Northern Uganda has the highest cases of chronic hepatitis B infection with over 25% of the population infected. Western Uganda registers about 7% cases of chronic hepatitis B infection.

Doctors tell us that the chronic hepatitis B infection virus reproduces in liver cells.

However the chronic hepatitis B infection virus itself is not the direct cause of damage to the liver. According to Dr. Mwesigye, hepatitis B is transmitted through sexual intercourse, illicit drug use and exposure to infected blood among other factors. The spread of the virus can be prevented through immunization.

The ministry of health and other health partners are vaccinating health providers against hepatitis B as one of the preventive measures to avoid contracting the virus due to blood contact with hepatitis B patients.

Walakira Nyanzi

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