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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | This week’s the 18th Joint Annual Scientific Health (JASH) conference, the 30th UNACOH conference and the 8th Uganda Medical Association (UMA) Grand Doctors Conference (GDC) plus Annual General Meeting (AGM) will climax on Friday afternoon, with the 22nd Dr Matthew Lukwiya Memorial Lecture.
Dr Matthew Lukwiya died during the first Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic in the country. Many health care workers were lost particularly over the period October 2000 to February 2001, many of them from Lacor Hospital in Gulu district.
In memory of Dr Lukwiya, lost on December 5, 2000 and other health care workers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, the Uganda National Association for Community and Occupational Health (UNACOH) has since 2002, held the annual Dr Matthew Lukwiya Memorial Lecture.
Dr Ambrose Otau Talisuna, a Ugandan medical doctor, epidemiologist, and public health expert in global health based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will deliver Friday’s memorial lecture titled “Global Health Security: The urgent need for expanding partnerships and protecting frontline health workers”.
“Dr Lukwiya has been and continues to be a symbol that represents all health care workers who have lost their lives in the course of saving the lives of other Ugandans. The COVID-19 pandemic gives further significance to this year’s Dr Lukwiya Memorial lecture in view of the numbers of health care workers that have lost their lives because of inadequate capacities in their work environment,” Dr Talisuna said in a pre-event comment written jointly with Dr Deogratias Kaheeru Sekimpi.
“The role of our health care workers is to save lives and alleviate the suffering of patients. It is NOT to get infected and die because of poor working environments and limited capacities to Prevent, Detect and Respond to epidemics,” Dr Talisuna said.
The UNACOH launched its first conference on 26th September 1987. However due to teething challenges the next conference did not take place until September 1993. Since then, except during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, UNACOH has held annual scientific conferences.
The 2000 annual scientific conference was attended among others by a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree post graduate student-Dr Matthew Lukwiya. Shortly after, on the 8th of October 2000, a mysterious disease, later confirmed to be the first Ebola Virus Disease epidemic in Uganda was reported from Gulu District. Dr Lukwiya who had then completed his MPH degree but was in Kampala was the first to make the alarm about that Ebola virus disease epidemic.
He traveled from Kampala to Lacor Hospital where he swiftly set up an isolation ward for the treatment of Ebola cases. He also started educating Lacor Hospital staff about barrier nursing and infection prevention and control measures.
He was one of three doctors who volunteered to work in the isolation ward from the start of the epidemic. His presence strengthened the response to the epidemic.
Unfortunately, Dr Mathew Lukwiya contracted the disease and on the 5th of December 2000, he died, despite medical efforts and nation-wide prayers for God to spare his life. His last words were “ I am going to die now, I pray no one has to die of this disease again”.
