Mildmay Uganda

For many years, Mildmay Uganda Hospital has been known to be a specialist HIV care centre. However, now the hospital is a 24-hour General Hospital providing an array of health care services to all. These include paediatric, maternity, physiotherapy, radiology, pharmacy, eye clinic, surgical, skin clinic and dental services, among others.

They also offer high quality and affordable laboratory services to clients from all walks of life. The laboratory is ISO 15189 accredited and offers an array of tests, acertification for quality and competence.

The scope of tests they do includes microbiology tests, where they diagnose diseasecausing microbes and the infections they cause. Emmanuel Omony, a laboratory manager, says the laboratory performs culture and sensitivitygrows microbes causing
infection and identifies drugs that are best suited to treat the infections.

“Through this investigation, we are able to determine resistance of microbes to different drugs. “We are able to test for Tuberculosis, cervical cancer in women, prostate cancer in men, using molecular techniques,” Omony said, adding, “We are also able to check anomalies of the liver, kidneys, the heart, referred to as liver, renal functional and cardiac profile tests.” He said there are clients on long term treatment who need to know the status of their body organs through regular planned checks. The other tests are hormonal assessment, where people are struggling to give birth because of underlying conditions or infections they have encountered.

“So, we are able to test for fertility hormones and are able to tell why somebody is unable to conceive. The laboratory has the capacity to test different cancer markers and find out which kind of cancer a client is suffering from.” Omony said they also have a haematology department where they look at blood cells. These cells may be affected by certain infections such as presence of parasitic infections like malaria, hook worm infestation and conditions such as leukaemia and anaemia caused by sickle

DETECTING DISEASE
“If a patient has fever, it doesn’t mean that they have malaria. The laboratory, therefore, is the cornerstone of medical diagnosis of disease. “This is because classical symptoms and signs at times look similar in certain infections,” Omony said, adding, “For instance, a person suffering from COVID-19 and another suffering from malaria may have similar symptoms. In this case, the laboratory is significant in confirming actual cause for the symptoms.”

RECOMMENDED TREATMENT

“It’s important that when you get treatment, it’s targeting a particular infection or disease. We should be able to find out what the cause of your symptom is. The laboratory isolates the symptom and gives guidance to the doctor on what medications
to dispense,” Omony said.

He said if a client has bacterial infection, they are able to grow the bacteria in the lab and know which drug works well, and recommend to the doctor what line of treatment they should take while handling a patient. “For many people who are abusing drugs, the germs get used to the drugs and fail to work after some time. The patient may discover that they are not healing irrespective of the number of drugs they may take,” he
added.

Omony said antimicrobial resistance emerges in most cases due to patient’s resistance to drugs. “The drugs fail to work after some time and a patient may discover that they are not healing from the same drug they have been taking over time. The lab is the first step to a person’s healing because its use results into proper diagnosis of a particular infection,” he said. Omony advised Ugandans that once they develop signs and symptoms of a

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particular disease, they should be able to run to the hospital lab to do tests, instead of going to the pharmacy next door to selfmedicate. He said proper diagnosis should move hand-inhand with proper medical treatment. Every passing day, Omony said, close to 500 people walk in and out of Mildmay Uganda Hospital. Some are outpatients, while a big number is admitted in their wards as well. The hospital also offers care to patients under medical insurance. “In the laboratory, we run close to 15,000 tests per month. Some people come to test for COVID-19, Hepatitis B, hypertension, HIV, syphilis, among many other infections.

The full body check-up, which we recommend, should be done annually by all people above the age of 40. We have come up with packages that are meant for women, elderly, and men. “When a man is above 40 years of age, they are susceptible to conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and pressure. Also, women are susceptible to cervical cancer, and should be checking for this more regularly. As part of wellness, it’s important that you come and check regularly before the symptoms emerge,” he said. Mildmay Uganda Hospital has world class equipment that produce tests in record time. With their userfriendly services, Mildmay Uganda Hospital is one of the most trusted and reliable healthcare facilities in Uganda.