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Showing posts from March, 2012

Use of unsafe medicines a key lead in disability

Seven year old Jeremiah Tenywa has been in pain for over three years after an injection which was meant to cure his malaria but instead turn his life to a misery. Tenywa a primary one pupil at Little Muheji Primary school developed what doctors described as a post injection paralysis. His mother Esther Nabirye took him to a small clinic in Nansana, Wakiso district in 2009 where he was diagnosed with malaria and he was injected on the buttocks with quinine medicine that is when the problem of her son started. “Upon reaching home, the boy could hardly stand and I immediately took him back to the clinic and reported to the doctor that my child was developing a disability,” she narrates. Nabirye said that she got confused and did not know what to do   because her son was slowly developing disability and   was advised to take Tenywa to Katalemwa Chesire Home for treatment. Emmanuel Ssekidde a psychiatric nursing officer at Katalemwa Chesire Home said that Tenywa was injected in

New case of TB increases in Uganda

For too long, tuberculosis has not received sufficient attention. The result of this neglect is needless suffering, in 2010 alone; nearly 9 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died, with 95 per cent of these deaths occurring in developing countries.    These numbers make tuberculosis the second top infectious killer of adults worldwide.   In Uganda we saw the new cases of TB increasing from 45,000 to 49,000 people. Dr Francis Adatu, the Program Manager National TB and Leprosy says Uganda is ranked 16th among the 22 high burden countries. He says that the impact reverberates far beyond the individuals directly affected. TB takes a heavy toll on families and communities. Dr Adutu also says that millions of children have lost their parents. Children who are exposed to sick family members are at high risk of contracting the disease. This year’s World TB day will be celebrated under theme: “Stop TB in our lifetime” and the main celebrations will take place in Kabale di

Kampala clouded in second-hand tobacco smoke

You enter a Kampala bar late in the evening and the entire place is engulfed in smoke. The atmosphere is colored with a grey haze from cigarettes. You venture out of the bar momentarily and smell your clothes and hair and the scent of tobacco pollutes your nose. Now imagine how absorbent your lungs are compared to the cotton fabric of your cloth. Second-hand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is a mixture of sidestream smoke from the burning tip of the cigarette and mainstream smoke exhaled by a smoker, with some 4,000 chemical compounds, including almost 70 known or probable human carcinogens (cancer-causing agents). Inhaling second-hand smoke, or passive smoking, kills children and adults who don’t smoke. It causes lung cancer and heart disease in people who have never smoked. Even brief exposure can damage cells in ways that set the cancer process in motion. According to the World Health Organization, non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke at home or at work increa

Infant mortality rates fall- Survey

Preliminary Uganda Demographic Health Survey report 2011 results are out, showing slightly improvement in the maternal and child health indicators. The number of children that die before their first birth day has slightly reduced with preliminary results showing an infant mortality rate of 54 deaths for every 1,000 in 2011 from 76 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2006. The results from the survey done by Uganda Bureau of Statistics every five years also show that the use of contraceptive by married women has slightly moved up to 30 percent from 24 percent in 2006 while the use of modern contraceptive has also increased from 18 percent in 2006 to 26 percent in 2011. Preliminary results which KC has seen show that the percentage of women giving in health facilities has increased to 57 percent compared to 42 percent in 2006. Also, 59 percent of women in Uganda are now giving birth with the assistance of skilled birth attendant. However, there is still a large disparity between t

Grain of science

A new study in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology says European women are almost two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer from depression than men. In pure numbers, this means that of the 30.3 million depressed Europeans, about 23 million are women. According to the study’s author, Hans-Ulrich Wittchen, the number of depressive episodes in women has also doubled in the last 30 years. “In females, you see these incredibly high rates of depressive episodes at times when they sometimes have their babies, where they raise children, where they have to cope with the double responsibility of job and family,” he said in a statement. This is not the fi rst time researchers have highlighted the high rate of depressive disorders in women. Statistics say American women are twice as likely to be depressed as men. A 2010 British study found that 18.7% of women over the age of 50 experienced depressive systems. By contrast, only 11.8% of men in the same age group experienced simil

President warns against de-gazetting park land for agriculture production

President Yoweri Museveni has warned the people of Rwenzori region against de-gazetting parts of the Rwenzori national park for land cultivation saying the region attracts tourists who bring in the much needed foreign earnings. Tourism, he said, has a potential of US$ 800 billion on the world market and that the Government is committed to promoting it for the benefit of the people. Giving the example of Spain , he said that the country earns US$ 23billion per year from the tourism industry alone and that Uganda has the potential to earn good income from the sector.  Uganda ’s tourism earnings increased from US $165.3m in 2001 to over $600m by 2009, making the industry a robust source of foreign exchange this according to Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) statistics. The President was speaking at the Zonal Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Enterprise selection organized by State House for Rwenzori Region at Entebbe State House. The ongoing conference organized for each region in Uganda

Empower Girls- Government told

  Women activists have asked government to empower a girl child in order to improve the social and economic status of women in Uganda. The Kabarole district woman member of Parliament Victoria Businge Rusoke said that government should give girls need an environment that will enhance their potential for better tomorrow. Rusoke was on Friday addressing a gathering at Kiyomba Primary school playground in Buhesi sub-county in Kabarole district during the International Women’s day celebrations. The day was celebrated under the Theme: “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures”. “It is important to focus on the girl child, re-think and determine their future which will inspire e the women of Uganda,” Rusoke said. She blamed the Police officers and parents for conniving with criminals to abuse the girls’ rights, instead of protecting them. “It breaks my heart to see the police force which is expected to protect a girl child join hands with criminals to drag parents of defiled, raped and tortured g

She uses bees to make life sweeter

  At first sight she does not capture your attention until you discover her personality and character.   She noted that I did not believe that as youthful as she looks, she can be a farmer and activist for food security in her community. Yet look can be deceptive. As soon as Sofia Night Apophia saw me, she immediately told me that when a home has enough food to feed its members, it’s one way of granting food stability in the community and country at large. Sofia a resident of Munobwa village, Hima Parish, Bugaki sub-county in Kyenjojo district grew up knowing that in order for the country to ensure food security and avoid scarcity of food and prolonged famine, each home must have enough food all the time. Sofia is connived that Uganda has the potential to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty if each family engages in production and stocking food. She believes if all Ugandans enhance food storing it will reduce on the problem of malnourished children in the country.   “Ensuring food sec

She called me dead walking person, virus man.

For Ugandan banker Moses Arinaitwe learning he was HIV positive when his wife Robinah was HIV negative was the beginning of disagreement and conflict in their relationship. Moses and Robinah had been together for seven years when HIV knocked on their door. “She wanted more babies, which I could not give her. She decided to leave me and got married to another man. In fact she has already produced,” Moses says. Arinaitwe says that, even without the need for more children, their relationship was plagued by conflicts, disagreements and even domestic violence as a result of their HIV discordance. He says his wife accused him of bringing the virus into their home and that he was “stigmatized and discriminated against” in his own home. He says his wife began sending text messages to his friends and relatives telling them about his health condition and HIV status and called him names like “dead walking person, virus man”. “She started a war against me and told all our friends and r

It should be every woman’s dream to preserve food- Says Businge

Many call her a traditional woman because she still believes that every family should have a granary in a home. A practice, she learnt from her grandmother, Grace Businge says that it is shame for women to stay without granaries and gardens of sweet potatoes, dry maize and cassava gardens. Her compound is surrounded by fruits ranging from oranges, paw-paw, mangos, guavas, sugarcanes, carrots, onions, green paper among others. She also planted mangos in her farm to provide shed for her cows and get fruits from at the same time. “Right from my childhood I knew it’s a shame and a high level of laziness for a woman to be there without a home garden. Husbands and children look up to us for food security and as women we must provide it at all times,” she says. Businge 49 a resident of Nsoro I, Kitereza ward, Kijura town council in Kabarole district says that the prolonged drought has not affected her because she stocks food to prepare for unpredicted famine. Businge has no kind words for wo

Uganda agriculture sector to benefit from USD 63million

The African Development Bank has approved a US$ 63.24 million fund package for the implementation of a 5-year, multi-CGIAR Center project dubbed “Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa” (SARD-SC). It is a research, science, and technology development initiative aimed at enhancing the productivity and income derived from cassava, maize, rice, and wheat four of the six commodities that African Heads of States, through the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program, have defined as strategic crops for Africa. The project will be co-implemented by three Africa-based CGIAR Centers: the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Africa Rice Center, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. IITA is also the Executing Agency of the project.Another CGIAR Center – the International Food Policy Research Institute a specialized technical agency, will support the other three Centers. The notice

President cautions against NGOs bottom-up approach on food security.

Press release : State House : March 6, 2012 President Yoweri Museveni has called for the re-evaluation of Uganda’s colonial policies on agriculture saying colonial ideas where designed for their own interests but must be revisited to know what is good for the country and what can be done away with. The President was referring to the partitioning of Uganda’s crops into cash and food crops with regions such as West Nile gazetted for tobacco growing while others were for cotton and coffee. “Farmers must make proper calculations of their incomes from enterprises to assess their incomes. Colonial agriculture must be assessed to know whether it is still relevant or not. They made maize a cash crop so it was not emphasized but it is now a major cash as well as food crop. The colonial idea of tobacco growing should have been assessed. What are they getting from tobacco,” he said. The President was today speaking at the Zonal Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Enterprise selection f

President Museveni declares war on insects that cause nodding syndrome

Press release: State House: 06 th March 2012    President Yoweri Museveni has reiterated government’s commitment to eradicate the “nodding” disease affecting children in the north of the country. The President today paid a visit to 25 patients suffering from the nodding disease who are under intensive care and treatment at Mulago Children’s hospital. The disease is suspected to be caused by the same germs that cause river-blindness. President Museveni, who consoled the patients and wished them quick recovery, explained that the government’s intervention will include killing all insects responsible for the transmission of the disease by massive spraying as well as treat all people at the same time. “The government will kill insects by spraying and treat all people at once not treating this one and leave the other. It is better to treat everybody to finish all the germs”, he said. The President also urged patients to complete the dosage prescribed by the doctors to avoid re-