Speaking on the sidelines of the Annual Scientific Health Conference that closed on Friday, Dr Jasper Nidoi a Researcher at the MLI said Uganda is currently facing a big burden of TB and yet not many men are turning up to health facilities for diagnosis. She warns that for every one case of TB undiagnosed, there is a risk of spreading the disease to up to 15 other people.
While attending the meeting held at Kibuli Senior Secondary School, Dr. Hellen Aanyu, a Pediatrician at Mulago National Referral Hospital said many undiagnosed children miss school unnecessarily because of failure to diagnose them early so that they are enrolled in treatment.
In Kampala, the researchers screened 510 patients who were admitted at various hospitals between March 2023 and March 2024 where they found 40% had COVID-19, 33% had Influenza Type A and 17% had RSV, a viral infection of the respiratory tract caused by the virus called Respiratory syncytial viru. 10% had influenza Type B.
This recommendation is being made after a study found that 25.6% of the over a thousand asthmatic patients that they followed up for a year needed high intensity treatment or precision medicine that is not accessible by many Ugandans.
Dr Rebecca Nantanda a Pediatrician and Researcher based at the institute told journalists this afternoon that they are embarking on this effort after their research found that 50% of pneumonia cases arise from indoor air pollution mainly from cooking and the fact that pollution has far reaching effects to the extent of affecting babies while still in their mothers’ wombs.
Dr Charles Ayume the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Health Committee said that the flaring that comes with oil extraction will lead to lung complications which need ready solutions provided by a well-prepared and involved workforce. He says that the Makerere University Lung Institute should already be spearheading these discussions with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development but this is not yet happening.
In the study which was conducted in thirty-six treatment units across twelve districts in Uganda to assess the gender dynamics in TB care, researchers found that six percent of the women who were receiving treatment for multi-drug resistant TB were lost to follow-up.
Speaking to journalists at a media meeting on Wednesday, Mary Mpakibi, who survived multi-drug resistant TB, said she did her first TB test in 2014 but only got a positive result a year later despite doing several sputum and X-ray tests.
Dr David Kalema, a Consultant at Safer Initiative Uganda, an entity created by the World Health Organisation to find solutions for alcohol-related harms, says the breathalyzers campaign which came to be popularly known as ‘Kawunyemu’ had helped reduce drunk-driving.
According to Dr. Bruce Kirenga, the Executive Director of Makerere Lung Institute, the antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections such as the widely used Azithromycin and erythromycin are not supposed to be used.
Dr Bruce Kirenga, the Institute’s Executive Director has said they have created a platform to allow laypeople who have herbal remedies for respiratory diseases like asthma to bring in their products for assessment.
According to Dr Rebecca Nantanda, a consultant paediatrician and lung expert who led the study team, only 33.9 per cent of those that screened positive knew they were living with asthma and the majority were unaware despite having symptoms.
Speaking at a meeting organized by the Makerere University Lung Institute to brainstorm on the gaps in care, Dr. Frank Mugabe Rwabinumi, the Principal Medical Officer in charge of NCDs in the Ministry of Health said they need to conduct a chronic respiratory diseases survey to determine the exact burden of such diseases and also train health workers to be able to detect such diseases in the clinic.
Dr. Damalie Nalwanga a pediatrician and researcher at Makerere University Lung Institute said on Thursday that a lot of oxygen that was procured during COVID-19 is not in use and yet a high number of children continue to succumb unnecessarily to conditions such as childhood pneumonia
Dr Alex Gasasira who heads the WHO Zimbabwe Country Office told Journalists attending a transnational media café involving journalists from East and Southern Africa on Tuesday that researchers have been following cases that suffered from COVID-19 way back in February 2020 but are still experiencing side effects after recovery.
Through mobile monitoring where researchers have placed devices on boda bodas around Kampala and Wakiso districts, Nantanda says they have found areas of Rubaga, Kawempe, Bweyogerere and Namugongo to have very bad quality of air, something that badly affects sensitive groups like children and the elderly of 70 years and above. She says Namugongo has had the worst measures among those areas.
Dr Bruce Kirenga, a lung expert said that for long health workers have been depending on symptoms to identify people who should get screened for TB but with the chest X-ray, case detection rates have increased from 3 to 10%.
Already, according to Dr. Bruce Kirenga, a Lung Expert who has been involved in treating critical COVID-19 cases says they have added a form of physiotherapy called proning on their cocktail of care for critical patients.
To treat each person, they require two units of blood meaning two donors are required for each patient, according to Kirenga, who explains that the higher the antibodies the quicker a person will be able to recover from the virus.
Dr. William Worodria, who heads the Case Management Team on the National COVID-19 taskforce admitted at the beginning the people who were testing positive presented mild symptoms which is why things like rehabilitation were missed in the guidelines.
