The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A study by the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau has proven high rates of Non-Communicable Diseases in rural areas, contrary to common belief that they are an urban problem because of the sedentary life among the urbanites, and high consumption of unhealthy foods.
Sadly, many health workers in rural health facilities cannot ably diagnose these diseases, according to Dr Tonny Tumwesigye, the Executive director of the bureau. The study covered 25 facilities, among them nine hospitals, three Health center IVs, 10 HC IIIs and three HCIIs.
The study, a baseline that focused on establishing the knowledge of health workers and whether patients were accessing care will be followed by another one to cost the burden, next year.
Tumwesigye recommends building the capacity of health workers and VHTs to screen, diagnose and enroll patients on treatment in addition to encouraging health promotion activities in the community as a way of improving the village NCD picture before it reaches crisis levels.
Tumwesigye said that of the 922 respondents they interacted with in 17 districts across the country, from December last year to November this year, only 210 had ever screened for NCDs. Also, of the 922 respondents in the community, only 391 had knowledge on NCDs although when the diseases were explained to them, 721 acknowledged having lost a person to one of the diseases.
Of the 210 who had ever been screened for NCDs, Tumwesigye said they established that 71 per cent of them were started on medication but only 29 per cent of those who started on medication was retained in care due to access factors.
Tumwesigye says that while many of the facilities that they visited had blood pressure machines, they were concentrated in the antenatal clinics. For the general out patient department, the only test they found health workers doing is the malaria test and never take blood pressure tests.
While the Ministry of Health statistics don’t show specifics for the rural, Dr Frank Mugabe, a senior official in the NCD Department of the Ministry of Health says they are currently making reviews that will help them to come up with appropriate interventions both in rural and urban settings.
He said, currently they are using statistics from the National risk factor survey that was done in 2014 and it shows that even with an increased threat of NCDs, 10 percent of Ugandans still use tobacco and 26.8 per cent harmfully consume alcohol, which is one of the biggest risk factors for these diseases.
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