Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Health Services, says that they recently went on a supervision tour of selected hospitals across the country and found that dedication to work has not changed despite improving remuneration.
One of the biggest causes of maternal mortality for instance is bleeding, high blood pressure during pregnancy, and infections but according to Prof Peter Waiswa, a lecturer and researcher based at Makerere University School of Public Health (MAKSPH) this data can not be relied on for accurate health decisions as the country has noted collected such data for seven years now.
Releasing findings of the study, Dr Simon Peter Kibira who led the team said they surveyed both women and men aged between 15 to 49 years in Buyende, Mbale, and Mukono districts, and the majority couldn’t properly describe their menstrual cycle.
According to Nazarius Mbona Tumwesigye a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Bio-statistics who was the Co – investigator on the study, they went ahead to screen individuals who had been on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for a month or more for alcohol levels in their blood and found it very high.
Acholi Sub-region in Particular witnessed a sharp rise in teenage pregnancies with a total of 16,228 cases registered among girls aged 15-19 years in 2021 alone according to the National Population Council report.
Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze, the Dean of Makerere University School of Public Health, who was the Principal Investigator of the study, says that they conducted viral load tests at various intervals of the study.
The experts found those that had bigger necks developed NCDs after some time of follow-up and now recommend that neck circumference can be used by health workers to determine those at risk of developing disease so that they can work towards preventing illness.
Dr. David Musoke a researcher at Makerere University School of Public Health says that having two community health workers replace a parish of over thirty VHTs is impractical
Dr Alex Riolexus Ario, the Director of the Uganda National Institute of Public Health says Uganda needs to have at least one field epidemiologist at the district level to identify problems faster and handle public health emergencies better.
Dr. Peter Waiswa, a researcher based at Makerere University School of Public health who was the Co-investigator on the study, says that one of the most important drivers of the decline in stunting among children under-five were increased coverage of insecticide-treated nets reasoning that with the prevention method, children do not fall sick.
Dr Simon Peter Kibira, a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at Makerere University quotes a Performance Monitoring and Action survey conducted by Makerere University School of Public Health, which established that almost half of all mothers they talked to during the survey, did not intend to have their last pregnancies.
Despite over 80% of the 855 respondents that were surveyed accepting that they are aware of key prevention measures such as hand washing, mask-wearing and maintaining a social distance, they found adherence to be very low.
Dr. John Ddamulira the Principal Investigator on the study conducted across six districts of Arua, Gulu, Kamuli, Kasese, Nakapiripirit, and Mubende last year revealed on Wednesday as the results were being launched that while a lot of people die of injuries with mortality rate estimated at 560 per 100,000 people, only 1.4% seek proper medical care for the injuries.
Prof Freddie Ssengooba, a Public Health Policy Expert-based at Makerere University told URN in an interview today, that the end of February could be too soon, basing on the conditions that the World Health Organisation gave countries to fulfil to be able to access vaccines through the COVAX facility.
He says majority of the participants said that their children’s learning was grossly affected whereby 39.4% reported children didn’t access learning materials whereas others said because of the structure of their households their children at 18.4% cannot focus while studying from home.
Dr Angella Namala, the hospital Deputy Director notes that their causality ward has had a huge reduction in road traffic accident victims and has now been replaced with those nursing gunshot and stab injuries. She said the victims have very deep injuries and are usually dropped at the hospital by the police.
Dr. Daniel Okello, the Ag. Director Public Health and Environment at KCCA says they are already engaging owners of arcades to have a person to do surveillance on their premises by ensuring that everyone accessing the building undergoes basic tests for likely symptoms of Corona Virus Disease COVID -19.
Folasade Ogunsola, a Professor of Microbiology based at the CDC said during the meeting that there is no use having whole-body coverage with PPE like the case is for Ebola since the coronavirus only affects the respiratory system.
Arnold Waiswa Ayazika, the NEMA director, Environmental Monitoring and Compliance says beyond the suppressing of the locusts, NEMA is interested in monitoring the potential impact of chemicals on water sources, food crops and or any other non-target organisms.
