According to an official with the World Health Organization, two treatment units have been established in the western border districts of Kasese and Bundibugyo to respond to any deadly Ebola outbreak,

“Ebola Treatment Units are where patients can get the best care possible with access to rehydration methods and protection from infecting their family and community,” Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, Uganda’s WHO Representative said.

Woldemariam said the treatment units were fully equipped and ready to manage any Ebola cases in the East African country. Although there are no confirmed Ebola cases in Uganda, the country remains on high alert following an outbreak in the neighboring Congo.

Ebola is highly contagious and can cause a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain and in many cases internal and external bleeding. The WHO says as of Aug. 21, there are 103 confirmed cases of Ebola in the DRC, with 61 deaths 32 were confirmed and 27 were probable.

Mortality rates of Ebola, according to WHO, are high, with the human case fatality rate ranging from 50 percent to 89 percent, depending on viral sub-type.

The current Congolese outbreak mirrors the 2014 West African outbreak that saw more than 11,000 deaths, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Liberia. There were also 11 cases of Ebola in the United States tied to the outbreak, including four deaths.

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A man lights a cigarette Uganda banned cigarette smoking in public

As the world prepares to commemorate World No Tobacco Day on Thursday, Uganda is striving to fight against the use of the substance which is a source of income to some people and yet a drain to the economy in terms health care.

World Health Organization (WHO) in a statement issued on Wedneday May 30, 2018 said in Uganda the cost of tobacco use constitutes 0.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while expenditure on treating tobacco induced illness is 2 percent of the National Health Expenditure.

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The statement noted that tobacco causes over 1 in 10 heart diseases, including stroke.
This year’s theme, ‘Tobacco and heart disease,’ focuses on tobacco use as a key risk factor for developing heart and related diseases, including stroke.
A study, “The Health Cost of Tobacco in Uganda,” released last year shows that the total cost of tobacco use including the direct cost of treatment and the indirect costs of loss of income and productivity from death and disability is 126.48 million U.S. dollars.

The study indicates that the total health cost outweighs the market value (81.22 million dollars) of tobacco products or the assumed benefits of tobacco use in Uganda.

Global annual costs from tobacco use, according to WHO, is 1.4 trillion dollars in health care expenditure and lost productivity from illness and premature death.
The health body says there is need to highlight the dangers associated with using tobacco, and to press for policies to reduce its use.

Uganda enacted a Tobacco Act about three years ago spelling out stringent measures to curb the produce, import, use and promote tobacco products.
The law banned advertising, promotion and sponsorship by tobacco manufacturers, distributors and sellers.
Government also banned importation, manufacture and sale of tobacco products which do not conform to standards. The country’s tax body, Uganda Revenue Authority, recently destroyed contraband cigarettes worth 410,000 dollars.
The law also made it illegal to smoke in public places.

Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary ministry of health recently said that whereas the country has a good law, it needs to be implement to realize the desired results.
Atwine said government would embark on sensitizing young people on the dangers of smoking.
“The percentage of young people with mental illness is associated with drug abuse. Young people fancy smoking shisha this is dangerous,” she said, noting that in their campaign against smoking, they will target university students.

She said the ministry would also destroy a 40-feet container full of shisha pots and related apparatus that were confiscated from bars and restaurants across the country.

Civil society organizations are also pushing companies to have in place regulations against the use of tobacco.
Primah Kwagala, an official of The Center for Health, Human Rights and Development, a civil society organization, told reporters recently that companies which fail to protect employees from smokers will face civil litigation.
Tobacco farmers, however, protest the increased pressure to stop tobacco use arguing that their household income is reducing.

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The World health organization is tasking Uganda to fully implement the plain packaging of all tobacco related products to ensure that consumers are totally protected and kept in the know on the dangers that come along when they continue consuming tobacco products as well as protecting the young from the habit.

According to the WHO country representative in Uganda, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, globally branding of tobacco products has to be similar with plain packing to protect the public from danger and any company that fails to follow the rules has to definitely get out of business in those countries that have already passed the anti tobacco laws. WHO continues to confirm that over 10 million deaths are registered across the world due to tobacco related cases which can be prevented if strong and punitive measures can be taken.

Meanwhile during the launch of the anti tobacco law 2015 today, the health minister Elioda Tumwesigye, sights the importance of this new law saying it will help so much in protecting nonsmokers from pollution and contracting diseases related to tobacco as he also adds on the WHO representative’s worry about the health burden caused by tobacco product consumption.

However the state minister for health, Dr. Chris Baryomosi who was the mover of the bill before it was passed into act, raises concerns of non communicable diseases which are also brought about by smoking tobacco products noting that females and youth have also increased interest in consuming tobacco which is very much worrying for health experts.

In a related development, the focal person in the fight against tobacco usage, Dr. Shilah Ndyanabangi calls for massive sensitization of the general public on the contents of the anti tobacco law 2015 to help demystify all the myths that pro-tobacco advocates have spread.

The world today marks the anti tobacco day which has seen Uganda register another mile stone in the setting up of good laws to save many lives from contracting disease.

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Photo: Echwalu Photography

Malaria is a mass killer that every family in Africa dreads. In 2013 statistics showed that about 3.2 billion people – almost half of the world’s population – were at risk of malaria. There were about 198 million malaria cases and an estimated 584 000 malaria deaths; of these 90%  occured in sub-Saharan Africa. This is according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics that continue to state that pregnant women are at high risk of dying from the complications of severe malaria. Malaria is also a cause of spontaneous abortion, premature delivery, stillbirth and severe maternal anaemia, and is responsible for about one third of preventable low-birth-weight babies.

Pregnant women are more susceptible than the general population to malaria. However, there is good news on the malaria front: researchers at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), working with colleagues of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Kenya and USA, and from the Kenya Medical Research Institution have found that a new drug may be more effective at preventing malaria in pregnant woman, especially where there is resistance to current treatments.

The study noted that WHO currently recommends that women in areas of stable malaria transmission receive intermittent preventative treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with the antimalarial drug sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), however high levels of resistance from the malaria parasite to this drug threatens its efficacy. This study looked at two alternatives to the recommended treatment strategy, intermittent screening with malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and treatment of RDT-positive women with the new drug dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (ISTp-DP); and intermittent preventative treatment with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (IPTp-DP). It was found that there were more instances of malaria with ISTp-DP compared to the existing IPTp-SP strategy, however there was a much lower instance of malaria in the IPTp-DP treated group.

This equated to an 84% reduction in the incidence of clinical malaria during the pregnancy, a 68% reduction in the risk of malaria infection at delivery and a 22% lower risk of anemia at delivery. IPTp-DP was also associated with up to 75% lower risk of stillbirths and early infant mortality than with SP. The drug was safe and very well tolerated by pregnant women.

Malaria in pregnancy remains a significant public health problem, and in areas of high resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine it is clear that an alternative treatment is needed. Our study showed that test and treat approaches are not a suitable alternative, at least not with the current generation of rapid diagnostic tests which still miss many infections, however it is a positive sign that prevention with the new drug dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine fared well in the study, and could be a promising alternative to SP following further investigation. – Senior author on the study and head of the Malaria in Pregnancy (MiP) Consortium, Professor Feiko ter Kuile.

With this study, the good news of pregnancy can be enjoyed be African women because the fear of malaria would be reduced.

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World Health Organization Internship Program: WHO‘s Internship Programme provides a wide range of opportunities for students to gain insight into the work of WHO.

Every year a limited number of places for internships are available.

Internship Application Eligibility Criteria:

• · Applicants must be enrolled in a degree programme in a graduate school (second university degree or higher) both at the time of application and during the internship.
• · Applicants pursuing their studies in countries where higher education is not divided into undergraduate and graduate stages.
• · Must have completed at least three years of full-time studies at a university or equivalent institution towards the completion of a degree. Undergraduates (for instance, students pursuing a Bachelor’s degree) are not eligible to apply.
• · A minimum of 20 years of age.
• · Possess a first degree in a public health, medical or social field related to the technical work of WHO.
• · Fluent in the working language of the office of assignment

Internship Application Dates:

• · Summer (May to October).
• · Winter (November to April).

All offline applications should be submitted before the vacancy deadline to the address shown on the vacancy notice. ·  To be considered for a Summer internship, applications are accepted between December 1 – January 31 each year.

• To be considered for a Winter internship, applications are accepted between September 1 – October 31 each year.

All offline applications for general applications of employment should be directed to: Central Human Resources Services (HRC), World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. Fax: +41 22 791 4773. If you have addtional questions, please interns[at]who.int

For more information see; World Health Organization Internship Program

More: Internship Programs » International Internships » Internship Openings

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