Rotten roots: MPs Medical Tourism are needed, because Health Ministers flee to do it too!

We have specialists to handle the cases the Members of Parliament that went abroad. We are not shamed about our hospitals, we have all requirements for specialised treatment of the MPs that left” – Ruth Aceng (04.09.2018).

Today, the Uganda Media Centre, State Minister of Helath Ruth Aceng, Minister for Housing Hon. Chris Baryomunsi and Gen. Elly Tumwiine has done their best to defend the state defense to the media. However, their defense of the state of Health Care needs to be dismissed. The other of the spin of what happened in Arua in August has to stop. As there are no one looking into the death and the tortured individuals, more spinning the blame on the civilians and not on the ones shooting live-bullets.

While that is a case, the Members of Parliament Hon. Francis Zaake and Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine left the Republic for medical treatment in both United States and India. However, this is not new. Earlier this year Betty Nambooze after the Age Limit ruckus has had medical treatment in India. She is not alone. As I will show.

From the Ministry of Health Alone in 2017:

The State minister for Primary Health Care, Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu because of food-poisoning last year, couldn’t get treatment in Uganda, so she flown to Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. While Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the State Minister of Health left Uganda for her knee surgery in India.

Former MPs Died in 2017:

Last year, Annie Logiel MP for Moroto headed to Denmark for treatment for her brain tumor, but did not survive. In the same year, William Bejikukye Zinkuratire, who was poisoned after he was sworn-in as MP, later getting treatment several times in India, but as he got final treatment in Uganda, finally succumbed to the illness. Former MP Issa Kikungwe died last year of a brain-tumor, as medical team at Mulago couldn’t save him.

In 2018:

Earlier this year, former MP Ruth Alinyikira Owagage was to get life needed treatment at the Jinja Hospital. However, the lack of oxygen and treatment let her die at the premises.

So, when I hear Ruth Aceng and others saying the Health Care have the ability to treat Bobi Wine and Zaake. I have my doubts, as the State Minister’s of Health went abroad for their treatments last year. The Presidents daughters have traveled abroad to give birth even. Therefore, when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) says everything is fine and dandy. Why did the State Ministers for Health travel themselves for treatment last year? Shouldn’t they be the firsts to use the services they represents?

This is like the brewer not drinking the own made drink, but instead buys Coca-Cola. Your supposed to be proud of what you produce and sell, not the ones you buy wholesale. That is what the State Minister of Health is doing. They are not proud of their service delivery, when your traveling abroad yourself for medical healthcare. That is what they have done. That is why Aceng isn’t the right voice to defend it. She has traveled herself, if someone should understand Zaake and Bobi Wine, it her. Instead she is all defensive. Peace.

Uganda Cancer Institute Press Release glitches in the radiotherapy machine (30.08.2018)

Democratic Republic of Congo: Specialist Red Cross Ebola team arrives in North Kivu (08.08.2018)

This outbreak is the second to strike Democratic Republic of Congo in recent months and comes just one week after the Ministry of Health declared the end of a separate Ebola outbreak in Equateur Province.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 8, 2018 – A team of Red Cross experts has arrived in the town of Beni, close to the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

The 19-person multidisciplinary team is made up of volunteers and staff from the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). It includes a nine-person safe and dignified burials unit, water and sanitation experts, and a community engagement specialist. Some of the members were deployed directly to Beni from the most recent Ebola response in Equateur Province.

Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, IFRC’s Regional Director for Africa said: “The Ebola virus is most infectious in the moments after death. The safe handling of people suspected to have died from Ebola is crucial to halting its spread. However, for this approach to work, it needs to be attuned to local cultural beliefs and norms. This involves engaging with communities in a way that builds trust. This crucial process will be a focus of the Red Cross teams.”

Local Red Cross volunteers are critical to curbing the spread of Ebola and will be supported by the specialist Red Cross team to carry out their work safely. This includes training and supervision for safe and dignified burials in Beni and Mangina as well as community outreach about Ebola in both health zones. The team will also improve water and sanitation systems in Beni prisons and help local hospitals and health facilities with infection prevention control measures as needed.

“We are deeply concerned that people in northern North Kivu have already been affected by years of armed conflict and an Ebola outbreak could be devastating to already vulnerable communities,” said Nicolas Lambert, the ICRC’s Deputy Head of Delegation in DR Congo and its Ebola response team leader.

North Kivu has been affected by armed conflict for two decades. In the past two years, humanitarian organizations have not be able to safely access some parts of the province. The ICRC has worked in Beni since 2008 and has supported internally displaced people in Mangina since 2015. Mangina hosts thousands of people who fled clashes in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, many of whom live with and rely on residents.

This outbreak is the second to strike DR Congo in recent months and comes just one week after the Ministry of Health declared the end of a separate Ebola outbreak in Equateur Province.

RDC: Ensemble – Le President Declaration sur le Virus Ebola (20.05.2018)

World Health Organization (WHO) concerned as one Ebola case confirmed in urban area of Democratic Republic of the Congo (17.05.2018)

As of 15 May, a total of 44 Ebola virus disease cases have been reported: 3 confirmed, 20 probable, and 21 suspected.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 17, 2018 –  One new case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) has been confirmed in Wangata, one of the three health zones of Mbandaka, a city of nearly 1.2 million people in Equateur Province in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Ministry of Health of the DRC announced the finding, after laboratory tests conducted by the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) confirmed one specimen as positive for EVD.

Until now, all the confirmed Ebola cases were reported from Bikoro health zone, which is also in Equateur Province but at a distance of nearly 150 km from Mbandaka. The health facilities in Bikoro have very limited functionality and the affected areas are difficult to reach, particularly during the current rainy season, as the roads are often impassable.

“This is a concerning development, but we now have better tools than ever before to combat Ebola,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “WHO and our partners are taking decisive action to stop further spread of the virus.”

The World Health Organization is deploying around 30 experts to conduct surveillance in the city and is working with the Ministry of Health and partners to engage with communities on prevention and treatment and the reporting of new cases.

“The arrival of Ebola in an urban area is very concerning and WHO and partners are working together to rapidly scale up the search for all contacts of the confirmed case in the Mbandaka area,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

WHO is also working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other partners to strengthen the capacity of health facilities to treat Ebola patients in special isolation wards.

As of 15 May, a total of 44 Ebola virus disease cases have been reported: 3 confirmed, 20 probable, and 21 suspected.

Uganda: Ebola in DRC – Ministry of Health Issues prevention guidelines (10.05.2018)

Cholera Alert in Kampala and Mpigi: Could have been avoided with a state controlled sewage system!

The people of the Kalerwe, Kampala and people from Mpigi District should worry about their sanitary positions and their water quality, as the Cholera outbreak is because of simple mistakes by the Ministry of Water and Environment, also by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) that hasn’t done their job. Because when 7 people are caught with the disease and put in a hospital. The whole local government combined with the Ministry should be finding the sources for the mixing of feces and water in the pipes to people of a certain area.

A person can get cholera by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium. In an epidemic, the source of the contamination is usually the feces of an infected person that contaminates water and/or food. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water. The disease is not likely to spread directly from one person to another; therefore, casual contact with an infected person is not a risk for becoming ill” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – ‘Cholera’ 09.11.2016 link: https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/general/index.html).

Now one person might have been affect and transmitted this to his nearby kin or neighbors, however, this disease comes from practically bad sanitary areas and water quality. Where the lack of control over the water pipes and the sanitary efforts of the city in general. There are even speculations that the emptying of the sewage tanks costs 200,000 shillings at a time and people cannot afford it. So they let it all out in the midst of rain. Therefore, the mix and the conditions where Cholera could breakout and clearly it has succeeded.

This here is a lack of government control and reason of change of dynamics so that people can live in healthier conditions and not fear to get into bad cycles of more illness and capability of income. Due to sickness and shows the lack of good living conditions. If society and the state wanted, they would have a decent sewage system and securing that it didn’t mix in the streets. So that the sickness of cholera would be avoided, it isn’t that hectic. It do cost in urban areas to lay the pipes and set up a well-functioning sewage system, but when you do have that combined with a decent water-pipes, the waterborne sicknesses that can be fought and avoided. That should be a priority, especially for a republic striving to reach middle-income very soon.

The Republic has choices and should plan ahead to secure the citizens, so they can avoid getting ill, by waterborne diseases like Cholera. That should be a priority by any of the Ministries that are involved, if it is the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Kampala, Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and others should strive to succeed, that is if they care about the well-being and are serious in the part of society. If not they are their to pocket their salaries and live lavish, while others are catching diseases that can be combat by very simple means and also serious constructions of sewage systems. This would secure the health and well-being of the citizens. It wouldn’t be an issue at-large, if the state did offer this.

There are happening like this with that too, when pipes goes old or technical malfunctions, but its easier to become a major issue and spreading alerts, when the society doesn’t have the systems in place. It is more sufficient and healthy to actually install and build this. All of this isn’t revolutionary, even citizens around the world is paying levies on it to the state and counties to secure the water is clean and sewage system is functioning to satisfaction. Where the public can contact the directorate or county body to complain if it malfunctioning. That should be possible in the Republic too, unless the state and the leadership see this all as unreasonable. Please tell me, because then your blaming the public for your lack of oversight and control of basic functions in society. Peace.

Kampala: Cholera Alert (07.05.2018)

Kenya Medicial Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union: KMPDU Position on Importation of Doctors from Cuba (30.04.2018)

Zimbabwe Nurses Association: Update – Time 1900hrs (21.04.2018)