The Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH)-Uganda, World Health Organisation (WHO)-Uganda, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-Uganda and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) has organized a Public Dialogue on the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) scheduled to take place on Friday 13^th March 2020 at the Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala from 2:00 to 5:00pm.

Theme: COUNTRY PREPAREDNESS TO PREVENT, DETECT AND RESPOND TO THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19) EPIDEMIC

Objective of the Public Lecture of the Public Lecture:

To contribute to COVID-19 Preparedness in Uganda through;

1. Providing a platform to educate the general public on the strategies the country is implementing to prevent, quickly detect and expediently respond to the COVID-19 global epidemic in Uganda
2. Providing a platform to educate the general public on what they should do and what they should not do to prevent themselves and others from getting infected with the COVID-19 virus
3. Generating potential insights and garnering support from academia and the general public and other key stakeholders to strengthen national preparedness to the COVID-19 global epidemic in Uganda

Speakers will include:

• Minister of Health, Uganda
• World Health Organization Representative to Uganda
• Dean, Makerere UniversitySchool of Public Health

Basic protective measures against the coronavirus:

1. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol based hand rub.
2. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. In addition, cover your mouth and nose with tissue when coughing and sneezing.
3. Maintain a safe distance between yourself and someone who is, sneezing and or coughing (at least 1 meter).
4. If you have a fever, cough and difficulty in breathing, seek medical care immediately.
5. Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces such as doorknobs/handles, car doors, elevator buttons etc. daily with regular household disinfectant or soap.
6. All people coming from countries affected by corona virus disease should follow the guidance given by health workers at the airport and other border entry points.

Contact Information:

Doreen Tuhebwe, MakSPH, Email: dtuhebwe[at]musph.ac.ug
Elizabeth Ekirapa, MakSPH, Email: ekky[at]musph.ac.ug
Mr. Atek Kagirita, MoH, Tel: +256-782-909153
Dr. Allan Muruta, MoH, Tel: +256-772-460297

source; http://news.mak.ac.ug/

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A patient receives treatment from a health facility in Uganda: COURTESY PHOTO

The findings were based on the expenditures in the health sector of the financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16. The overall expenditures, with household and contributions from donors were however five times higher than the government input into the sector.

The has been a decline in the Uganda’s  expenditures on each citizen’s treatment from $11 (Shs40,700) per year in 2013 to $10 (Shs37,000)  which is just one third of the $34 (Shs126,000) recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the $17 (Shs63,000) minimum by ministry of health.

Therefore, many Ugandans have desisted from accessing medical care from public health facilities and turned to private that offer quality services.

According to the study, one of every two households seeks health services from private providers as opposed to 13.5 who go to public facilities.

Mr Tom Aliti, the Health ministry’s assistant commissioner for planning and development said the growing number of healthcare seekers may trigger hicking of hospital bills in private hospitals in a bid to procure more staff especially doctors.

Former vice president, and presidential adviser on health policy, Dr Specioza Kazibwe, however advised government to stop relaying on donor funds.

“We need to do away with donor mentality. There is nothing for nothing and we are either paying indirectly or paying in-kind; so, let us begin talking about our money,” Dr Kazibwe said as she chaired the results dissemination meeting in Kampala. (Daily monitor: July 25, 2018)

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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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GHSA was launched in 2014 as a 5-year initiative to increase country-level health security capacity to stop outbreaks at the source. The Agenda now includes over 60 nations all working to close gaps that allow infectious diseases to take root and spread.

“Africa as a continent has insufficient surveillance, laboratory networks, competent workforce and research expertise which compromises evidence-based decision making. Africa must rise up to the challenge and develop its capacity through the various national bodies,” the President said.

Mr. Museveni said that African Heads of State launched the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) after recognizing its need at the African Union Special Summit on HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria in Abuja in July 2013, before the devastating Ebola outbreak of 2014/2015.

He added that in 2000 when Uganda had an Ebola outbreak in Gulu and 2007 when Marburg broke out, the government’s capacity to prevent, detect and respond was poor and many lives were lost. “Since then, we have put emphasis on building capacity and I am happy that the detection and response timelines, have improved and control is swiftly mounted,” he said.

The President appealed to leaders to follow up disease outbreaks from the time of declaration to the time the country is declared free of the outbreak because the public might refuse to listen to the medical people but listen to their leaders. “Here in Uganda, I regard myself a political doctor. The medical doctor cannot handle all of the outbreaks. When there is an outbreak here, I immediately get involved and become part of the responsive team,” he said.

Mr. Museveni also urged the GHSA to train and empower communities with information because they are a very useful tool at enhancing prevention, detection and response.  “Communities are very important in the control of public threats as they are the first people to experience the outbreaks and have their own values, beliefs and ways of responding,” he said.

President Museveni addresses the $th Health Security Agenda

President Museveni called upon the public to stop encroaching on the environment saying this has disrupted the equilibrium and resulted in emerging and re-emerging of public health threats. “Ebola and Marburg are because humans invade habitats of animals where they are not supposed to be,” he said.

The President said that according to World Health Organization, 6 out of every 10 infectious diseases in humans, are spread from animals; therefore, the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment.

Citing the 2014/2015 Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, Dr Tim Evans, a Senior Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank, said epidemics and pandemics derail economies. He called upon the participants to think about national, regional and global financing for a more secure future.

Admiral Tim Ziemer, Senior Director for Global Health and White House National Security Council member said the US government was committed to supporting the GHSA and extend it up to 2024.

“If GHSA is extended to 2024, we will work with partners to strengthen the next phase of this multilateral initiative building on existing work, and shaping the GHSA mission and structure to reflect the current global health security environment,” he said.

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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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Other causes of cleft lip are vitamin deficiency and taking poor medication, and consumption of large amount of alcohol.

Exposure to smoking environment in early pregnancy, exposure to x-rays at an early stage of pregnancy may also predispose the unborn baby to the condition of cleft lip.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) so advises pregnant women to be careful.

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Having a good diet helps us to prevent spinal bifida. This is the most common of a group of birth defects in Uganda and around the world known as neutral tube defects.

Neural tube defects affect the central nervous system that is the brain and spinal cord. The cause of this defect, according to the experts in World Health Organisation (WHO) is lack of enough folic acid during the process of the baby’s development in the womb.

But folic acids can be obtained from locally available foods and  vegetables such as cabbages, soya, mushrooms, ovacado, fresh bananas, ground nuts,  liver, spinach, doddo, pumpkin leaves and fresh vegetables.

According to medical experts 70% of cases of neural tube defects could be prevented by adequate intake of folic acid immediately before and in early pregnancy.

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Over-consumption of alcohol linked is to cancer. Almost 10% of all cancers in men and 3% in women in Western Europe are caused by people drinking too much alcohol.

The scientist in German analyzed  this data from France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Netherlands, Britain  and found 50,400 out of a total of 79,100 cases of certain types of cancers including bowel and throat tumors were caused by people over drinking.

It is also good to note that alcohol and drugs misuse weakens the fight against TB and Malaria.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that the misuse of alcohol and drugs and irrational use of antibiotics has undermined the global fight against TB and Malaria.

An estimated 440.000 new cases of multidrug-resistant TB were reported last year in nearly 6o countries across the world.

Walakira Nyanzi

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Doctors attending to an Ebola victim

Speaking to journalists  in Kampala, the minister of state  for health in charge of general duties, Dr. Richard Nduhura said although they are declaring the disease is gone, they are still surveying the area in case there is still a trace for the disease.

Meanwhile, the country representative of WHO, Dr. Joaquim Saweka attributes the quick fight against the ebola disease to high level of awareness and action which were taken by the government.

He assures all people intending to come to Uganda not to worry about the disease since it is now gone.

The disease which broke out last month in Samata village Ngalo nkalu parish in Luwero district claimed one life and had more than 47 residents hospitalized.

By Isaac Senabulya

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