Increased urinary infections in women worries gov't

Mar 04, 2020

Peace Mutuuzo, the state minister for gender and culture said government noted with concern that the major causes of morbidity and comorbidity in patients especially women and girls are UTIs.

WOMEN   GENDER EQUALITY

KAMPALA - Government has expressed concern over the rapid increase in the number of women being diagnosed with Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs).

While briefing Journalists on Monday at the Ministry of Gender officers, Peace Mutuuzo, the state minister for gender and culture said government noted with concern that the major causes of morbidity and comorbidity in patients especially women and girls are UTIs.

 "A study recently conducted at Mulago (national referral hospital) found the prevalence to be 72.5% in those tested. The problem is largely prevalent in urban areas due to poor hygiene levels at public lavatories while the risk is even higher for Persons with Disabilities owing to design inefficiencies," she said.

UTIs are infections, caused either by bacteria, fungi or viruses, which affect any part of the urinary system, kidney, bladder or the urethra. The infections are more common in women.

The study, Bacteriuria among adult non-pregnant women attending Mulago hospital assessment centre in Uganda, was conducted by four medical researchers, Amos Deogratius Mwaka, Harriet Mayanja-Kizza, Edward Kigonya and Deogratius Kaddu-Mulindwa.

The study assessed urine samples from 399 women aged 18 and above. Most of them were from Kampala and Wakiso district.

Mutuuzo, while briefing journalists on the country's preparedness for the forthcoming celebration of the international women's day, noted that the design of toilets in public places has made easy for the infections to be transmitted from one person to the other.

"For example in big companies and institutions where over 100 people sit on one toilet, if one person has the infection then she will easily transmit it to the others. In public functions these portable latrines have very small space inside for one to handle their business and come out without infection," she said.

She appealed to the business community to improve on the design of the toilets and urged the innovators to come up with innovations that will safeguard women from infections.

Women's Day

The Women's day celebrations will be held at Malukhu grounds in Mbale Municipality, Mbale district under the theme ‘celebrating 25 years of the 1995 constitution: Milestones in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in Uganda.'

Achievements

She explained that this year's celebrations will involve taking stock of achievements made by the government in gender equality and women empowerment in the last 25 years, following the promulgation of the 1995 constitution.

"Government has made notable strides in achieving gender equality and women empowerment through the enactment of several policies, legislation, regulations and programs. The Constitution recognizes equality between women and men and outlaws any form of discrimination," she stated.

Some of the key laws that promote the rights of women in the country include Women's Council Act 1993, land Act 1998, the Domestic Violence Act 2010, the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act 2010, the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act (2009), the Persons with Disabilities Act 2019, the equal opportunities Act 2010 and the child (amendment) Act 2016.

Mutuuzo noted that in order to address the health challenges faced by women and girls, the government developed the Public Health Act, the Food and Drug Act, the National Health Policy, the National Adolescent Health Policy and the Reproductive health Policy.

She noted that these have seen great improvements in the health of the population. For instance, infant mortality has reduced from 81 per 100,000 births in 2000 to 54 per 100,000 live births in 2015, and the total fertility reducing from 6.9 in 2000 to 5.4 in 2019.

However, she said, the government is still struggling with containing teenage pregnancies and sexual harassment.

Economically, she said, the government developed various initiatives including the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program (UWEP) and the Youth Livelihood Fund which has benefited 130,258 and 110,322 women, respectively.

Other programs she pointed out include the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE), the green jobs program and the Graduate Volunteer Scheme.

Mutuuzo also noted that government has scored highly on political representation with 36% of senior ministers, 30% state ministers, 20% shadow ministers and 34.8% MPs are women.

In the education sector, she said the country in 2015 achieved the gender balance on pre-primary, primary and secondary enrollment.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});