The leaders in Uganda's health sector

By Dr. Daniel Tumwine

A few weeks ago, I was seated in an invite-only audience for a book    launch. The book, African Health Leaders, which is edited by a prominent medical doctor, is a harbinger of sorts.

It contains commentaries and ‘sutras’ on African health achievements from three generations of African health leaders who have led improvements in their countries.

The book breaks the usual mold by recognising the incredible contribution of African doctors within the field of medicine.

This event led me to explore the unmapped motif of Ugandan doctors who have pioneered and excelled  globally in their chosen field. Their story is seldom told. Their achievements rarely recognised.

No narrative on Uganda’s medical history can be embarked upon without a note on the foundation laid by Albert Cook. Albert Cook is the towering figure of Western medicine in Uganda.

He arrived in Uganda at the behest of Kabaka Muteesa’s request to England’s Queen Victoria for church missionaries who could also heal.

A missionary and doctor, no one did as much as Cook to ensure that Ugandans received good medical care.

When Cook, the father of Ugandan medicine, arrived in 1897 and set up Uganda’s first hospital, a 12-bed facility in Mengo, he couldn’t get anybody to work with him.

The only people who volunteered were recovered patients.

The first Ugandan to practice Western medicine (albeit without formal training) was Semei Kasaji, whom Cook had treated for a mixed parotid tumour.

Another former patient, a one Yusufu, under Cook’s tutelage, carried out the first Western surgery by a Ugandan.

“He finished the surgery by tying off six arteries and sewing up the wound quite satisfactorily,” Cook wrote.

Together with Semei and Yusufu, Cook started Mulago Hospital in 1913. It was initially an STD admission centre and in 1917, it became a fully fledged hospital.

As Western medicine took root, the need to have locally-trained health workers became a priority.

In response, despite protest from the colonial government which believed that natives could not grasp the intricacies of medical diagnoses and treatment, Makerere College Medical School was opened in 1924. Initially, four students were admitted, but only three passed the final exam and graduated in 1927. These were: Dionysius Bamundaga, Anthonio Bamugye and Yakobo Baziwane.

Thirty-four years later, in 1958, Josephine Nambooze became the first female doctor in East and Central Africa. Fifty-five years after Nambooze’s achievement, Margaret Mungherera would become the first Ugandan to head the World Medical Association, an amalgam of associations representing doctors around the world.

In 1965, Joseph Sekyala Lutwama became the first Ugandan head of a medical training department and later that year, the first Ugandan dean of a medical school. Ten years later, in 1975, he became the vice-chancellor of Makerere University. The second Ugandan doctor to become vice-chancellor of Makerere University was George Kirya.

Joseph Muhangi, who later became a Member of Parliament, was the first Ugandan psychiatrist.

Unfortunately, he was mysteriously killed in 1981.

Ugandan doctors have also featured prominently in politics. Uganda has had three doctors as vice-presidents; Samson Kisekka, Specioza Kazibwe and Gilbert Bukenya.

Ivan Kadama was the first Ugandan to head the health sector, which he transformed into one responsive to African needs. His son, Patrick Kadama, was one of the authors of the book with another Ugandan, Prof. Francis Omaswa.

Omaswa did not only head the Ugandan health sector as director general, he was  also the first cardio-thoracic surgeon in east, central and southern Africa. He also helped found the Uganda Heart Institute and established the first quality improvement department in a ministry of health in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Omaswa was also the first Ugandan special adviser to the WHO director general as well as the founding executive director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance. He is married to the first Ugandan anaesthesiologist.

Other pioneering Ugandan doctors include Alexander Odonga, the first doctor in east and central Africa to qualify as a specialist surgeon. He is also a former dean of Makerere Medical School and dean of the School of Dentistry, University of Nairobi. He was also the first person to publish an English-Luo dictionary.

Other contemporaries include Adeodata Kekitiinwa who pioneered the Baylor Paediatric HIV/AIDS Treatment Centre in Mulago Hospital -the largest paediatric HIV treatment centre in the world. David Serwadda, who pioneered work on male circumcision, is the first Ugandan to be inducted into the Johns Hopkins University society of scholars. There is also Francis Miiro, who led the breakthrough in  preventing mothers passing on HIV to their children.

Another Ugandan in this category is Peter Mugenyi, who, in 2002, took it upon himself to order a shipment of low-cost generic ARVs from India, in direct defiance of Uganda’s and international patent laws.

There are many more Ugandan doctors who are unsung pioneers. Currently, there are 18 doctors in West Africa leading Ebola containment efforts using pioneering methods that were perfected in Uganda.

There are also hundreds more who are faceless and nameless and wake up everyday to make sure humanity is a better place. I tip my hat to those, especially. These are the true Ugandan heroes. They deserve their fifteen minutes.