Uganda seeks deeper health sector ties with Russia

 ST. PETERSBURG - As Uganda strives to boost health care provision, it is moving beyond its traditional partners, Western countries, to countries like Russia.

A delegation from the Ministry of Health led by Dr. Joseph Okware, the Director of Governance and Regulation at the ministry was early this month in Russia, seeking deeper ties. 

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Russian Health Care Week 2024, the country's largest exhibition in the medical industry, covering equipment manufacturing, science, and practical medicine.

The key message from Uganda was that it needed cooperation in areas including; handling infectious diseases, strengthening emergency medical services, electronic medical records, and training healthcare specialists.

“We need to further the collaboration on what we agreed upon, and we have continued to send relevant experts from Uganda to have discussions on the technical areas we agreed upon in that conference,” Dr. Okware told the meeting, which was chaired by Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.

“The issue of electronic medical records is an area we want to improve because at the moment we are still using paper-based records, and we are beginning to change from paper-based to electronic records. I believe Russia is very advanced on this front,” he added.  

Murashko, Russia's health minister said there is already an existing collaboration between Uganda and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in managing epidemic diseases like Ebola, adding that the Russian Federation was the first to manufacture Ebola vaccines.

Another Ugandan delegation attended the fifth International Conference on Combating Infectious Diseases held December 12-13 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 

The conference gathered more than 330 delegates from 26 countries who represent state and governmental bodies, academic communities, and scientists, among others.

Dr. Stavia Turyahabwe, the commissioner Communicable Disease Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health made a presentation regarding the Tuberculosis(TB) situation in Uganda.

Participants attending the V International Scientific and Practical Conference on Combating Infectious Diseases at the Presidential Library in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Courtesy Photo)

Turyahabwe said the TB situation has changed since new interventions were made after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Uganda is one of the highest burden TB and TB HIV countries in the world with an estimated 96,000 TB disease patients annually. 

TB patients' identification was lagging behind over the years with about 25 percent of those who fall ill with the disease not being identified and treated. 

"Following this, the community-wide screening was launched in 2021 to bridge the gap in case finding. First implemented in 2022, the innovation led to 100 percent identification of all people with the disease in that year," Turyahabwe said, noting that to date, close to 30,000 patients with TB disease have been identified and linked to care.

She described the Russian meeting as important in seeking closer collaboration on emerging infectious diseases and strengthening African countries' capacities in disease detection and response control.

There is already collaboration between Uganda and Russia in the health sector. 

In April this year, Russia handed over two state-of-the-art mobile laboratory trucks to the Ministry of Health to boost the country's pandemic surveillance. 

The handover was at the closure of the first Joint-Africa Russia International Conference on Combating Infectious Diseases held in Kampala. 

The April meeting focused on strengthening collaborative interventions to deal with future pandemics.