The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Scientists at the Makerere University Lung Institute have urged the government to revise its essential lists of medicines and incorporate medicines that work well for patients who suffer from severe asthma.
This recommendation is being made after a study found that 25.6 percent of the over a thousand asthmatic patients that they followed up for a year needed high-intensity treatment or precision medicine that is not accessible by many Ugandans.
Releasing findings of this study which was also conducted in other African countries including Kenya and Ethiopia, Dr Winters Muttamba a researcher at the Institute revealed that, more concerning is that 4.6% of the study participants still presented with severe asthma even when they were enrolled onto high-intensity treatment.
Researchers reveal that at the beginning of the study, the majority of the patients didn’t have access to the basic required treatment whereby only 13.9% of them were receiving inhaled corticosteroid treatment at the time of enrolment.
Dr Charles Oyoo Akia the Commissioner of Non-Communicable Diseases acknowledged that there are still access challenges although he revealed that inhalers are now on the essential medicines lists which is a new development as the government would previously provide tablets only for free.
However, according to doctors at the Lung Institute, the inhalers currently provided by the government are not effective for especially those that get severe forms of asthma.
Muttamba for instance urges the government to utilize the findings of this study to make decisions on which medicine they can incorporate into the essential medicines list if they are to make more treatment impact.
Apart from treatment, doctors say there is a need for more awareness such that people living with asthma can live without frequent attacks. For instance, Dr Maria Ssekimpi a Lung Expert at the institute says sufferers should be educated on common triggers such that they avoid them but warns that even then patients should always have an inhaler despite having mild disease.
Meanwhile, the exact prevalence of asthma in Uganda is unknown as no countrywide survey has been done to determine this however results of this study show more men suffer from asthma than their female counterparts.
Globally, asthma affected an estimated 262 million people in 2019 and caused 455,000 deaths. The majority of these happened in developing countries like Uganda.
The findings of this study were released as World Asthma Day was being commemorated on Tuesday under the theme, ‘Asthma education empowers’.
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