Ministry of Health statistics shows that 20 per cent of admitted patients in hospitals will need medical oxygen therapy especially children and pregnant women. While it is offered free of charge in government-owned facilities, some private facilities charge between 20,000 and 50,000 Shillings per hour for patients who need life support.
Dr Alfred Driwale, the programme manager for the Uganda National Expanded Programme on immunization -UNEPI says that all isolation wards that previously had measles patients have been closed nationally, following the mass measles/rubella campaign that took place in October 2019.
The cases, all from the same family, were immunized at a community vaccination post located in Kalagi. But one of them passed away yesterday at the pediatric unit in Mulago National Referral Hospital after being diagnosed with Stevenson Johnson syndrome, a severe skin and mucus membrane disorder that normally occurs as a reaction to medication or an infection.
The news of the fraud came after a survey done by the Uganda Insurers Association found wide-spread cheating from hospitals, which forced some insurance to erase some of the clinics from the list of providers, at the beginning of this month.
Because of poor investment and infrastructure, millions of people including children die every year from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene. According to WHO, poor sanitation alone causes up to 432,000 diarrheal deaths annually, and it is also linked to the transmission of other diseases including cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis A and polio.
Known as the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), the process involves rearing large quantities of sterilized male mosquitoes in dedicated facilities and then releasing them to mate with females in the wild. As they do not produce any offspring, the insect population declines over time.
Charles Asiimwe, a NIPN Nutritionist, while speaking at Nutrition Data Communication and Journalism on Thursday, said stunted growth in Kampala and neighbouring districts has increased to 18 percent up down from 14 five years ago.
