Uganda faces health crisis.

Abstract

This article reports on the health crisis confronting Uganda, which results from the breakdown of disease control. The breakdown of disease control here has led to the reappearance of diseases that were once eliminated. Malaria has come back with full force and now accounts for nearly 20% of all deaths in hospitals. Hospital sources say that 30% of the cases they treat are resistant to chloroquine drugs. Diarrheal diseases have also made a comeback, and UNICEF reports that they are now the second biggest killer and the second cause of hospital consultations. Sleeping sickness has now also reached alarming proportions, with cases in the eastern Iganga district rising from 52 in 1976 to 5000 cases last year. The health ministry also says that it is seriously affecting other eastern, northern, and central regions. Health resources are now overstretched, with only 710 doctors serving 17 million people. Over 1500 Ugandan doctors have gone into exile. AIDS is, of course, of overwhelming concern, with 30% of hospital admissions showing AIDS-related infections. The health ministry is being castigated for failing to come up with effective policies, despite numerous reports and studies in the past few years. And it is also a casualty of drastic spending cuts by the government.