Do regular medical checkups - Bigirimana 

HEALTH

KAMPALA - The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development, Pius Bigirimana, has directed the ministry staff to engage in regular medical check-ups and physical exercise.

Addressing staff at the ministry organized health camp in Kampala on Thursday, Bigirimana warned them against reckless lifestyle, which exposes them to diseases.

The Ministry has since launched a physical exercise programme, which according to Bigirimana, has helped many staff members to address their weight challenge.

"By the time we introduced this programme, many people had issues. For example, our undersecretary Benon Kigenyi weighed over 100kg, but he has since cut weight to below 70kg. His wife has appreciated," Bigirimana joked in the presence of Kigenyi and other members of staff.

"Therefore, colleagues, it is very important to eat well, do exercise and undertake regular medical check-ups to identify diseases before they get out of control," he added.

Bigirimana said the ministry had outsourced service providers to offer medical services to the staff.

The services Bigirimana said include; HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, male circumcision, hepatitis screening, and eye check-ups, among others.

The service providers included; AIDS Information Centre, Agarwal's Eye Care Centre, Butabika Mental Hospital and UAP Insurance.

The PS  encouraged the male staff members to embrace male medical circumcision disclosing that it is one of the services offered by the service providers.

"I understand that some of you are not circumcised because you fear that it is painful. But I want to encourage you to do so.

This is not like the Embalu, one where those boys are circumcised without anesthesia. You get circumcised and within a few days you will be well again," he said.

He added: "We are in the process of modernizing Embalu to ensure that it is safe and secure.

But otherwise male circumcision has not only proved usefully in the fight against HIV/AIDS but also other disease infections."  

The ministry of gender staff being tested

 
The recent report by Kampala International Hospital indicated that most corporate men in the country do not want to be circumcised for fear of going for long without sex as they recover. An average circumcision wound takes between one and three weeks to completely heal.

In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended SMC (Safe Male Circumcision) as one of the interventions in the fight against HIV after trials in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa showed it reduces the risk of female-to-male sexual transmission of the virus by about 60%.

Invited to speak on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Stephen Watiti, challenged the ministry staff to work towards zero new HIV/AIDS infections, telling them that the rate of infections was still high in Uganda.

"We need to work towards zero new infections, zero deaths, and zero stigma. The disease is still killing 26,000 Ugandans every year. A total of 950 Ugandans are getting infected by HIV/AIDS every day, which undermines the fight against the scourge," Dr. Watiti said. Over 5,000 are infected every week.