Museveni urges medics to sensitise masses

By Vision reporter

President Yoweri Museveni has urged medical officers to use FM radio stations to sensitise masses on health issues. He particularly asked them to sensitise masses on the nodding disease that has affected over 1,000 people in the Acholi sub-region.

The President made the call on Saturday while launching the mass drug administration programme against river blindness and other neglected diseases.

During the event at Angangura Primary School in Pader district, Museveni also launched three major public health interventions for the improvement of the health of the people of Uganda.

They included the mass drug administration for river blindness and other neglected tropical diseases, mass measles and polio immunisation and Child Days Plus.

The interventions will be implemented in the 112 districts, according to the World Health Organisation.

The launch, that was attended by ministers and MPs, was characterised by mass administration of drugs for river blindness to control the spread of nodding disease.

River blindness is caused by the parasitic worm called onchocerca volvulus. It is transmitted through repeated bites by black flies. The infection can result in blindness.

The disease is called river blindness because the black fly that is responsible for its transmission lives and breeds near fast-flowing streams and rivers. According to medical experts, onchocercisias causes skin disease, including nodules under the skin or debilitating itching on top of causing visual impairment or blindness.

Worldwide, onchocersiasis is second only to trachoma as an infectious cause of blindness. River blindness is present in 36 African countries, the Arabian peninsula and the Americas.

Out of the 120 million people at risk of contracting the disease, 96% are in Africa. Of the 36 countries where the disease is endemic, 30 are in sub-Sahara Africa and Yemen, while six are in the Americas.

Museveni told the gathering that scientists and medical officers have confirmed that there was a likely association between nodding disease and river blindness.

He, therefore, urged the public to co-operate and asked leaders to educate everybody on health issues.

Museveni noted that nodding disease is easy to eliminate by taking two doses of the recommended drug per year.

“You take one or four tablets according to your height after every six months. How can we fail to do that to eliminate river blindness?” Museveni asked. He stressed that in order to solve the problem, there must be mass treatment to kill the worms which cause river blindness.

Museveni announced that the Government would spray the breeding areas of the flies, especially near rivers. “Tanzania did what we are doing and eliminated the disease. I am beginning to have hope that the affected children may recover, but we need to work, train and do more research,” the president said.