I''ll be a doctor for life
Sep 15, 2012
Her passion for children is palpable. She speaks about them with affection usually reserved for fond friends. She considers babies born to HIV-positive mothers, her ''adopted'' babies, working tirelessly to see them healthy,Vicky Wandawa writes
Her passion for children is palpable. She speaks about them with affection usually reserved for fond friends. She considers babies born to HIV-positive mothers, her 'adopted' babies, working tirelessly to see them healthy,
Vicky Wandawa writes
As a child, she wanted to be a ballerina and then she wanted to be an air stewardess then a farmer. Finally she made up her mind to take the path of human medicine. And with her love for delivering babies, she thought she wanted to be an obstetrics gynaecologist, but that was quite not it.
She was still searching. Her love for children extended beyond their birth to care and wellbeing, so she knew she wanted to be a paediatrician. Today, she is one paediatrician whose research has saved the lives of many children across Africa.
This is Dr. Philippa Musoke, associate professor in the department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Mulago Hospital, a principal investigator with Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration and the acting chair of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) technical committee at the Ministry of Health.
Musoke, 54, was the Uganda co-principal investigator on a 1996 project which saw a team of scientists investigate the PMTCT of HIV, using Nevirapine.
Childhood years
Musoke spent most of her childhood in Nakasero and Makerere University campus; at the latter, where her father, Prof. Latimer Kamya Musoke lectured. She describes her childhood as beautiful. She was one of 11 children. Musoke says her parents sacrificed a lot to give them a good education.
“They taught us to work hard, to be content with what we have and not to discriminate.”
She was so fond of her strict but loving father who passed on in 1979, when she was a 4th year medical school student.
“I was at home helping my sister prepare for her graduation, which was the following day, when mummy called me to their bedroom. My father was breathing badly. She called a doctor but by the time he arrived, dad was gone.”
Many dreams
Her father was a paediatrician, one of the first in Uganda. At the time of his death, he was the head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, at Makerere University Medical School. However, she says his profession never inspired her.
Little Phillipa’s career dreams kept changing. First, it was the ballerina dancers — she envisioned herself as one — when she was about eight and attending Nakasero Primary School.
“It was beautiful seeing the pretty dresses and dainty dancing,” she recalls. Not even the Christmas gift of a toy doctor’s set complete with toy stethoscope from her parents, Rebecca Musoke and her late father, could change her mind.
“Then, I did not even think about being a doctor. I am not the only doctor in the family, therefore it’s not that they saw the interest I had in being a doctor and tried to enhance it.”
As an adolescent at Gayaza High School, air stewardesses were her new fascination.
“My friends and I admired the smart stewardesses of Uganda Airlines, British Airways and Lufthansa, whenever we visited the airport.”
That obsession with stewardesses lasted no more than a year and by Senior Three, Musoke wanted to pursue agriculture. However, she was not given the subject at O'level.
Her mother, previously a housewife, had started a farm in Namugongo, hence Musoke’s sudden interest in agriculture. She loved walking around the farm and seeing the animals and plants.
She soon changed her mind and, at A'level, selected subjects in preparation to join medical school. At medical school, she loved to participate in the delivery of babies and thought she might do Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She graduated in 1981.
Father's footsteps
Finally, her career took the “Like father, like daughter” path. As an intern, Musoke discovered that she loved taking care of sick children, so she opted for further studies in paediatrics and child health, then left for the US to study.
In the US she did her residency in paediatrics for three years, a fellowship in infectious diseases for four years and returned home in 1995.
She could have had opportunities to work there when she completed her fellowship, but Musoke chose to work in Uganda, where she felt God wanted her to minister to the many sick children.
She became part of a research she says is the most interesting and rewarding research she has done. It was the HIVNET012 study which demonstrated that a single dose of Nevirapine given to an HIV-infected pregnant woman at the onset of labour and to her baby soon after delivery could reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission by 50%.
“This simple, cheap and effective intervention was implemented in many developing countries, including Uganda and became the cornerstone to the current PMTCT HIV transmission strategies worldwide,” Musoke explains.
Last year, she finished her PhD, one of the two events she considers the greatest milestones in her career. The other was completing her infectious diseases fellowship in 1994.
Hectic work
Today, Musoke is doing more than research. She does clinical care and teaching as well.
Combining the three responsibilities means a pretty hectic schedule. Her day starts between 5:30am and 6:00am with prayer and she is at work by 7:00am, before everyone else, which enables her do some things without interruption.
She then conducts rounds in the children’s wards or teaches medical students or attend research meetings, depending on her schedule. The rest of her day has her reviewing emails, documents, manuscripts or writing proposals.
She often leaves work between 8:00pm and 9:00pm, but does find time to relax by reading Christian books, listening to gospel music, occasionally watching movies and visiting with family and friends.
She enjoys research because “it is nice to be able to ask specific questions, conduct a study to answer the question and then get results that may be used to improve the health of women and children in Uganda and beyond.”
However, even as Musoke enjoys doing her work, she does have challenges. “Managing human resource is not easy. People are hard to satisfy and are often complaining.
“Plus, the state of health affairs in this country is discouraging. Children are dying from preventable infections like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. Most HIV-positive children are infected through mother-to-child transmission and yet we have effective strategies against that. “I would love to see the immunisation coverage of Ugandan children increase to over 90% and for Uganda to work towards elimination of paediatric HIV infection,” Musoke says.
Motherhood
She has a son, Jeremiah, 27, who lives in the US. She admits that she misses him, but accepts that her son is grown up now and independent. He is into car sales, but is a musician at heart and loves to compose songs.
Dr. Musoke is divorced and chose not to re-marry. She focused on raising her son and on her career. She is not lonely though: her mother stays with her most of the time.
Musoke says she has no plans of retiring from her work.
“Once a doctor, always a doctor. However, I may change what I do on a daily basis and put in some time for one of my hobbies, gardening,” she says.
As a committed Christian, she believes in never giving up, even when things do not work the way we want them to.
“When you put your life in God’s hands, even if it takes many twists and turns, you will finally end up where He wants you to be,” she says.
She also never forgets her father's favourite phrase, “Do not cry over spilt milk,” and her mother’s, “An elephant does not fail to carry its own tusks.” On how she wants to be remembered, Musoke says definitely: “As one who loved to take care of sick children.”