The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Scientists attending the Annual Scientific Conference of Physicians in East, Central and South Africa (ESCACOP) have been urged to consider recommending vaccines for adults to curb the growing public health crisis of respiratory infections.
Speaking at the conference on Friday, Prof Bruce Kirenga, a Lung Specialist based at the Makerere University Lung Institute revealed that Uganda has been experiencing a strange surge in coughs and flu, affecting people at the time out of the known peak season for influenza-related illnesses.
While the second peak of these infections usually happens between October and November, the doctor says data from the National Surveillance Programme shows the ongoing surge started in August.
Kirenga leads various teams of researchers doing respiratory disease-related studies in the country and according to him all recent studies they have done reveal groups of people who still suffer from severe forms of COVID-19.
In one of these studies where they sampled 3800 patients seeking treatment for acute respiratory illness from hospitals across the country, 3.8 per cent were found to have the virus.
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 virus. 10% had influenza Type B.
For all these infections apart from RSV, there are vaccines against them available in the country but their uptake remains low and physicians say this is partly due to uncertainty among health providers about their presence since most awareness goes to the free government-provided vaccines.
Kirenga for instance says one can take a pneumococcal vaccine every three years and an influenza vaccine every year to keep away such infections or being severely affected in case one gets infected.
Dr. Lydia Nakiyingi, the President of the Physicians Association of Uganda says while there is a surge of flu and other respiratory infections, the kind of infections here are not as bad as those in the West where the vaccines were developed.
She says there needs to be a study evaluating the vaccines about the strains of pathogens circulating in Uganda.
In addition, she says there needs to be a cost-benefit analysis as many of these vaccines are for sale when it comes to adults. A jab goes for between a hundred and three hundred thousand shillings which is quite unaffordable for many.
In an earlier interview with URN about the cough and flu surge, Dr Daniel Kyabayinze the Director of Public Health noted that the number of people seeking the free COVID-19 jab had reduced greatly following the reduction in cases. He urged especially the elderly to continue seeking their booster doses noting that many had become complacent.
He declined to comment about flu vaccines people could pick from the pharmacies and pay out of pocket saying he can only speak for what is available on the government programme.
Meanwhile, Kirenga says all the coughs and cases of flu being treated as bacterial infections or allergies may not require such treatments as antibiotics as their data shows, that only 10% of the cases have a pathogen, and the rest are mere irritations.
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