By Flavia Nassaka Private health providers want the Ministry of Health to purchase COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers on their behalf, Grace Ssali Kiwanuka, the Executive Director Uganda Healthcare Federation (UHF) said in an interview noting that they have also asked the ministry to allow them store the vaccines at the National Medical Stores (NMS) once…
By Flavia Nassaka 79% of the respondents in a new survey whose results were released over the weekend feel pregnancies have increased in their communities ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began. This isn’t an entirely new finding since some were already reported not to have returned when government briefly re-opened schools in a staggered manner…
By Flavia Nassaka The government’s biggest pre-occupation now is ensuring that as many people as possible get vaccinated, after the suspension of lockdown restrictions that were instituted in June. This is according to Dr Immaculate Ampaire the Deputy Manager of the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization (UNEPI). Dr Ampaire said that they are exploring…
By Flavia Nassaka HIV advocates have condemned the continued harassment of sex workers by especially police officers who defraud them of their heard earned cash in the disguise of implementing COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Macklean Kyomya, Executive Director at Alliance of Women Advocating for Change (AWAC), an organization that advocates for…
By Brian Luwaga Luwero and Nakasongola Districts COVID-19 taskforces have ordered the arrest of mourners opening coffins containing bodies of COVID-19 victims. The Uganda government as part of the Standard Operating Procedures to stop COVID-19 in Uganda announced that open caskets funerals are abolished for people who have succumbed to the disease. …
By Flavia Nassaka Experts in the medical field have called for the inclusion of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) on the priority list of people to be considered first for COVID-19 vaccination as countries roll out vaccines. Dr Silvia Bertagnolio, a Medical Officer at the World Health Organisation (WHO) quoted their latest data…
By Pamela Mawanda Patients receiving treatment after being diagnosed with COVID-19 during the second wave are presenting totally different symptoms and treatment takes longer, doctors have observed. Dr Christopher Nsereko, a physician at Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital, says that common symptoms among the people who have been infected during the second wave include chest pain,…
By Flavia Nassaka Out of 3,000 samples from patients seeking care at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) 298 tested positive for COVID-19 over a one year period. 20 of the samples were from children. These were identified through an initiative that run for about a year that required everyone seeking cancer treatment to first undertake…
The administration of Luwero Hospital has asked the District Executive to lift the suspension of the private wing at the facility to allow patients to access better and cheap health services. Health financing in Uganda is largely out of pocket and the direct out-of-pocket health expenditure stands at 37%, majority of which goes to the private…
By Flavia Nassaka Regulation of prices by government in a free market economy is not common but always left to the forces of demand and supply. However, under the Corona virus pandemic, Uganda human rights activists have welcomed a move championed by a local NGO Center for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) to turn to…