If you are reading this, CONGRATULATIONS! You are still alive and that is something to thank God for in this season of the Covid19 pestilence.
We thank
God for the entire
Ugandan medical fraternity
that have fought the
good fight, and thus far have they brought us. When one follows closely what is
happening on the international scene, we should not place much of our trust in
the good will of the rest of the world as it seems "every man for
himself" has taken over. At times one cannot help but wonder if some
of these international players are not indeed being deliberate about slow
action or in some cases plain inaction. But kudos to the Ugandan medical
fraternity who have wrought a good work in our midst.
In the midst of so much dark news, recent
news on social media has been rife with number of great positive articles; for
example a certain Prof Ogwang that is onto something in the realm
of herbal therapy; we also have Dr. Nambatya that also has a solution already on
the test shelves to provide therapeutic options. Then the other day I read about a
one Dr. Makobore of Najjera Hospital that seems to have
gotten the medical treatment equation right, at a time when many other
hospitals and medical centers are taking their patients for granted in the
midst of a very tough time. There are many
other Medical heroes of this season whose names I have no access to, who are
doing a great job in this fight. I wonder how some of
the
other players in this field
are going to live with it when each time they look at their wealth accumulated
in this season all they see is the blood of Ugandans that dug out their last pennies only to get nothing
like they should have gotten for that value, and then ended up
across the river before their time.
Anyhow, for
some time now I have thought about what we can do as a nation to deal with this
Covid19 crisis (and other
crises coming in the future). These thoughts have
resided in
my mind since I left Mulago Hospital Covid19 HDU
in December 2020 having fully recovered from the killer disease after careful
handling by the excellent team of specialists manning this Unit. I realize that in
times of national crisis we have to put on another set of hats that require
silos to be broken down. A lot of great stuff is happening at the Mulago National
Referral hospital and in the Ministry of Health
in as far as treatment of and management of Covid19 is concerned. Like I
mentioned in the previous paragraph as well, a lot of others are innovating
therapies and treatments that have been proven to work in real time. I also
have heard that Uganda is in advanced stages of developing its own homegrown Covid19 vaccine.
I wonder in time
of war like this when some among us, rather than support these innovative efforts, find it in
themselves to criticize these innovators that are trying so hard to save
some lives. The
other day I read an unfortunate comment on social media of a doubter that
thinks nothing good can come out of Uganda; this was when someone posted that a
Ugandan vaccine was
in advanced stages of tests. I however think this is what happens when people
have seen gory images for far too long and thereby get programmed by them;
these images keep
playing back to them even when the scene has already changed to the extent that the victim does not see any change
but overwhelming flashbacks
of the gory past before them all the time. One of the
lessons I learned whilst I was hospitalized with COvid19 was that this disease
loves negativity and will thrive much in such environments. This is true for
the patients as
it is for those affected by it. It is time for lots of positivity to issue out in our society even
as we continue to be cautious and observe the SOPs.
A few things
that I think the great medical fraternity can do (perhaps they already are
doing so):
1) 1) Treatment centers
like the Mulago National Referral Hospital Covid19 HDU
that have scored huge successes in treating this disease should open up to all
medical practitioners to volunteer to learn. I think there would be a lot of
value for any willing medical practitioner volunteering at the HDU and ICU of
Mulago for at least a week. A lot of mentorship can happen in the process that
will help speed up learnings and build networks to fight this monster.
2) 2) There
could be daily online conferences for Medical practitioners that divulge new observations and findings
plus
all other helpful information on the disease. Discussions could
happen on this forum to decongest and solve conundrums as well as to share
experiences that can help move things swiftly forwards. The old English adage “two heads are better than
one” comes to mind.
I have
witnessed over the years medical expert “mobs” beating down medical innovators who were later proven right at the cost of loads of Human lives. I
sometimes wonder if it is better to keep people alive with these innovations as we
get to understand their interactions better or simply let them die until we
perfect our understanding of them. In the former case at least, there is chance
that some of our people would live to die another day. I think we
need this paradigm shift
to encourage these medical innovators
to speak up.
There is no
disease for which a solution does not exist. It is just that we do
not know it yet, but remedies already exist; so lets create an atmosphere to
bring these out. This
way we shall swiftly move
forward together.
Oh Uganda, may
God uphold thee; We
lay our future in thine hands!
