Good health begins at home

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We generally have Communicable Diseases (CDs) and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are non-transmissible. They include diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, joint pain, arthritis, and allergies.

Dr Patrick Tusiime, the Commissioner of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health, explains that CDs easily spread from one person to another or from one organism to another, and that organism can even be an animal.

Dr Patrick Tusiime, the Commissioner of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health. (Courtesy photo)

“These are zoonosis diseases that we contract from animals when we interact with them. Some outbreak-prone diseases like Ebola, Marburg, and anthrax or rinderpest originate from wild animals, spread to domestic animals, and then to human beings.

CDs are the biggest burden Uganda, and generally Africa and developing countries are grappling with,” Tusiime says. According to him, 85% of diseases that take people to hospitals are preventable. 

Malaria tops the list of communicable diseases killing Ugandans

According to Tusiime, malaria tops the list of the most common CDs that kill Ugandans.

“Although we tend to think that people know what causes malaria (malaria parasites enter our blood and then destroy red blood cells, causing all the other problems and eventually leading to death) many are dying from it. From our health facilities alone, we lose about 40 people a day,” Tusiime says.

Other worrying CDs

The other CDs are those that cause respiratory tract infections, explains Tusiime. Virus diseases like COVID -19, Ebola, flu viruses, influenza, and yellow fever pose a significant burden.

“We are in a belt that has a lot of rain and sunshine, which is good because all these germs grow easily, but this has a negative effect on us,” he says.

Prevention

All of these diseases are preventable. According to Tusiime, poor hygiene and sanitation are the main causes of most diseases. Contaminated environments in homes or communities spread most of them, especially through food and water.

Pupils washing hands after using the toilet. (Photo Agnes Kyotalengerire)

There is also a need to dispose of excrement in locations that are difficult to access. However, a lack of functional toilets in Kampala and other urban areas exacerbates the situation.

Many homes do not have functional toilets; they use newspapers to clean themselves. According to Tusiime, there is also the belief that children’s faeces are not infectious, but that is wrong. People throw faeces into communal garbage pits and manage them like other waste, despite the fact that they are hazardous.

Handwashing

Tusiime says in almost 99.9% of cases, people touch faeces, which contain germs. As they shake hands and continue to prepare food at home or in a restaurant, germs contaminate it. “People don’t wash their hands.

You should wash your hands with soap and water because our bodies produce oil. Do not use water alone, instead, use soap to make your hands cleaner. We need to go back to the basics and reduce catastrophic expenditure on communicable diseases at family and country level,” Tusiime says.

He cautions against the mindset through which every leader desires a hospital within their constituency.

“We are not conveying the correct message; which is to wash hands with soap and water so as to prevent diseases such as red eye, diarrhoea, worms, and other similar conditions.

Let us go back to preventing diseases and promoting good health,” Tusiime said, stressing the fact that Ugandans can best prevent communicable diseases at home and at community level.