Following the breakdown of Uganda’s only radiotherapy machine in early April, cancer patients continue to travel to Nairobi under different programmes introduced to save the situation. Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) are the latest to intervene, and in a statement on Tuesday, revealed they plan to send seven patients to Kenya …
Read More »‘Sugar daddies’ and ‘blessers’: A threat to AIDS fight
Durban, South Africa | AFP | Lebogang Motsumi, 27, still remembers the moment when she learnt she had contracted HIV from a man a decade her senior. “It was August 15, 2009, at 1:00pm,” she said, recalling the instant when her life changed traumatically. “I was so ignorant,” she said. …
Read More »Herbal attack on malaria
Scientists study new herbal drug that offers hope in fight against drug resistant malaria Ugandans treasure herbal medicine. That perhaps explains the many herbalists found almost everywhere in the country. Problem is that the efficacy of most of their concoctions is not verifiable, are of unclear composition, and the ingredients …
Read More »HIV: Children to get sweet ARVs
New trial in pediatric HIV treatment gives hope for better results Whenever his mother holds a spoon, little Imran becomes suspicious. He asks his mother whether it’s time for ‘panadol’ yet again. He contracted HIV at birth and has to take Lopinavir and Lamivudine – two antiretroviral (ARV) drugs- twice …
Read More »Korea to support $5m teenage girls’ campaign
Amidst pomp and color, a new programme geared towards prevention of teenage pregnancy and under-age marriage was launched Tuesday at Golf Course hotel in Kampala. Dubbed, Better Life for Girls (BL46), the programme funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency targets 412,012 girls aged between 10 and 19 years mainly …
Read More »West Africans arrive to learn more about epidemic control
Delegates from Sierra Leone and Guinea are in Uganda to gain more experience on how to combat and respond to disease outbreaks. They have shown interest in recruiting Ugandans to help build capacity. Guinea has battled Ebola in the last two years and plans to manage epidemic outbreaks in future …
Read More »Zika experts say quitting Olympics an ‘over-reaction’
Paris, France | AFP | Only pregnant women and people planning a family need fear Zika, disease experts said Wednesday after golfer Rory McIlroy became the latest athlete to withdraw from the Olympics over virus fears. The mosquito-borne virus, which can also be transmitted via sex, is thought to cause …
Read More »HEALTH: Why women ministers were handed the baton
DR ACENG: New Minister of Health is a thoroughbred technocrat. Will that help her fix a sector that politicians almost killed? Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the new minister of Health, is very authoritative – in a soft spoken way. So it is easy to guess that she will want to …
Read More »Whole grain consumption could lead to longer life
A diet that includes three daily servings of whole grains appears to help people live longer, including by reducing the rates of death from heart disease and cancer, according to findings released Monday. For each 16-gram serving of whole grains, public health researchers at Harvard University noted a seven percent …
Read More »HEALTH: Worries persist over heavy dependence on donors
Ailing health sector: Sector gets increment but worries over heavy dependence on donors persist Every time the budget is presented, citizens take a hard look at the allocation to the health sector. This year, the government has unveiled an ambitious budget of Shs26trillion of which Shs1,826.49bn is going to the …
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