HIV: Quicker CD4 count results at Makerere

By Violet Nabatanzi

KAMPALA - Makerere University students and lecturers living with HIV will get much quicker CD4 count results after the university hospital acquired a new Pima CD4 testing machine.

Area residents accessing the health facility will also benefit.

A CD4 count is a lab test that measures the number of CD4 cells in the blood of an HIV-positive person.

CD4 cells (sometimes called T-cells) are a type of white blood cells that play a significant role in protecting an individual’s body from infection.

Basically, the CD4 count of a healthy adult or adolescent ranges from 500 cells/mm3 to 1,200 cells/mm3.

The new CD4 testing machine at Makerere’s hospital was donated by Makerere University Joint AIDS Program (MJAP).

It is understood patients will get their results in under 20 minutes.

The equipment will guide the health worker in offering timely antiretroviral therapy (ART) and it will work on 15 blood samples a day.
 

Here, Dr. Jennifer Namusobya hands over a microscope to Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe. (Credit: Mary Kansiime)

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Francis Kalule, a lab technologist of Makerere University Joint Aids Program, testing the new Pima CD4 testing machine. (Credit: Mary Kansiime)

The hospital's acting executive director Dr. Margaret Wandera said previously their clients were using private laboratories to know their CD4 count and this would take a month to acquire results.

Such delay, she added, would lead some patients to switch to other hospitals and they would fail to follow them up.

"We partnered with Crystal Holdings – a private laboratory – and our clients have been getting free results for their CD4 count. The laboratory offers several lab services and had a contract with the university to provide these services," said Dr. Wandera.

About 390 HIV clients are receiving free treatment from the facility, she said.

The university hospital has a 32-bed In-patient Ward and admissions to the ward are exclusively for students only. The health facility is comprised of various units which render different services to the university community. 

With a population of 36 million people, Uganda has an HIV prevalence rate of 7.3%, according to the 2011 Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey (UAIS) report. The percentage is higher among women than men.

The prevalence rate is at 8.2% among women compared to 6.1% among men.
 

Makerere University's deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe said the donation (of the CD4 testing machine) is timely because it will enable hospital staff to carry out proper diagnosis.

"We need to put attention to this hospital by making sure that our students get proper health care,” he said.

“If we are going to get the crime of the nation and then the health service delivery is not addressed and students end up dying or incapacitated, then we are not doing the right thing.”

Dr. Jennifer Namusobya, who is MJAP's executive director said that over the past years, her organization through funding from the US government has partnered with Makerere University to provide and scale up HIV testing and counseling services, TB/HIV integrated services, save male circumcision and support for survivors of sexual and gender based violence.

The organization also offered a microscope machine for general specimen examinations.