THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN UGANDA: THE POTENTIAL ADVERSE EFFECTS TO THE CATHOLIC HEALTH NETWORK’S WORKFORCE AND HEALTH FACILITY OPERATIONS. A CALL TO ACTION
Dr. RONALD M. KASYABA
Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau
The world is amidst a global infectious pandemic—the Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which started in the City of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019, and has since then rapidly spread, currently affecting 199 countries and territories of the World.
The evolving adverse effects of COVID-19 on individual & inter-personal lifestyles, on the socio-cultural, economic and health systems of affected countries is proving to be more dire than previously predicted.
As at Saturday 28th March, the total confirmed COVID-19 cases globally were 617,417 with 28,377 reported deaths and 137,336 recovered. The five most affected countries—the U.S.A, Italy, China, Spain and Germany account for 64% of the global caseload (and 70% of the global deaths due to COVID-19)—all of which had their first corona virus case confirmed 3 months ago.
In Uganda, the Ministry of Health has reported 23 confirmed cases scattered across the country—eight (8) days since the first case was reported and fortunately no reported deaths due to COVID-19.
Clearly, the virus is now circulating in the country, and it is possible undetected cases are accelerating transmission—which is likely to escalate given, in part, the fairly prolonged turn-around times for the centralized testing for corona virus. The time interval between the corona virus nasopharyngeal swab at any of the satellite health facilities to the reporting of the test results (and limited self isolation measures)—will have exposed an average 5 – 7 or more persons to the virus—and probably infected half (2 – 3) the number!
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