Baylor Uganda winds up West Nile activities

Baylor Uganda has wound-up its five year activities in West Nile sub-region with the construction of two fully fledged HIV/AIDS treatment centres.

The facilities were constructed at Oli Health Centre IV and Panyimur Health Centre III in Arua and Nebbi districts respectively.

The facilities will see the scaling up of comprehensive HIV/AIDS/Tuberculosis care, treatment and prevention services in the region.

While handing over the facilities, the Executive Director of Baylor -Uganda Dr. Adeodata Kekitiina said the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda has registered a considerable level of success as regards sensitizing of the population about how to live positively.

"The centres will continue to facilitate the provision of child-focused and family-centered HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment services, health professional training and clinical research," Kekitiina said. 

In the last five years, Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation Uganda has been offering the above services through funding by the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

Dr Wiersma and the executive director of Baylor Uganda Dr. Adeodata Kekitiina with Arua district officials. Photo by Abou Kisige

"We have succeeded in offering counseling services, ARVs and improved health infrastructure which has helped in bringing down the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDs in the region's 9 Districts," Kekitiina said.

She said the centres are a resource as they will reduce congestion in Arua Regional Referral hospital as they act a backup in terms of where to take blood samples.

According to the National HIV/AIDS indicator survey of 2011, the prevalence rate in the West Nile sub region stands at 4.9percent.

But the Arua District Health Officer, Patrick Anguzu says this trend is worrying because it represents a doubling of the prevalence rate from the last National Sero-behavior survey which puts the prevalence at 2.3percent.

"The rising prevalence of HIV/AIDS threatens to wipe out the significant gains that have been registered over the years, Anguzu said.

He said this could even be higher given the fact that most of the cases are not often reported due to lack of comprehensive reporting mechanism.

Patients waiting to receive treatment after the commissioning the center. Photo by Abou Kisige

Anguzu said the district been tackling the HIV/AIDS scourge through collaborations with partners like Baylor Uganda and successes began to be seen from 2010 when Centre for Disease Control through Baylor offered funding.

"As the program winds up we have registered a lot of impact in the area of capacity building through improving the staffing with 12 nurses, 4 clinician, 4 record personnel, 57 RCT volunteers, 2 laboratory assistants, 134VHT and peer mothers," Anguzu said.

He said the program also contributed to human resource development: 41 candidates were sponsored for midwifery training, 7 for laboratory technology, 4 for laboratory technician course and 13 are still for enrolled midwifery course and 3 for laboratory technology. 

Anguzu lauded the tremendous support from CDC through Baylor adding that challenges still exist there's need to sustain the gains so far to further improve on them.

He however noted that there's limited geographical access to service delivery as about 86 parishes in the district do not have any health facility.

He added that access to viral load monitoring is also still very low as there is only one viral load machine at Arua Regional Hospital.

The Country Director of CDC Dr. Steven Wiersma said urged clients to take their medicines regularly to prevent other diseases associated with HIV/AIDS. "We need to continue to emphasize safe male circumcision as we strive to protect the young generation," Wiersma said.

He said Baylor Uganda could be phasing out but the American people are not bidding farewell to people of West Nile.

"We shall continue to stand by the people of Arua to put an end to the epidemic. We shall continue with the support to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda" Wiersma said.