Experts at Makerere University Lung Institutetogether with people living or have suffered from lung disease launched a new national body on Friday to bridge the gap between care providers, policy makers and patients in tackling respiratory diseases.
The new entity called the Lung Health Alliance which will be run by a seven-member board chaired by Respiratory Physician Dr Ivan Kimuli focuses on pushing for improved care for seven priority conditions including asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Post TB lung disease, occupational lung disease, lung cancer and childhood lung complications.
Speaking at the launch, Kimuli revealed they conducted a study in key regional and the national referral hospitals where they found that while lung diseases including TB are curable, they leave behind life-long disability among sufferers which largely remains unmeasured and yet they often can’t find help for such complications.
In the study conducted at Gulu, Arua, Mbale, Mbarara, Mubende Regional Referral hospitals as well as Kiruddu national referral hospital in which they involved 123 patients, 96.7 percent reported a complication related to lung disease of which 75 percent were severely disabled.
According to Kimuli, this study though not nationally representative gave them a picture of how big the problem of chronic lung disease is and yet not much efforts were being made to help patients. Apart from the alliance being a convergence point for researchers in respiratory health, it will act as platform for patients to report such issues and also involve them in coming up with best solutions that suit their different conditions.
In the study, the researchers also assessed the readiness of these facilities to handle lung disease and found that while there are existing national guidelines for treatment of both lung disease and post-disease conditions, only two of the facilities had the right human resource to treat such complications. In addition, only three could do spirometry, a basic lung function test that measures the volume and speed of air one can inhale or exhale.
Commenting about the launched alliance, Dr Charles Olaro the Director General of Health Services in the Ministry of Health said it comes in handy when there are challenges in health seeking as patients first seek alternative care in the community before seeking proper help from the professionals.
He said with awareness created by such alliances, it’s easier to involve people with lived experience in developing policy.
In his remarks, Chris Kwizera, the Team Lead at the Uganda NCD Alliance said lung disease was initially neglected as both health advocates and researchers of non-communicable diseases gave more attention to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Increasingly, he says, they are seeing a lot of misery associated with lung disease with even recovered patients reporting complications such as getting exhausted quickly, inability to do physical activity and inability to get their breath if just conducting simple chores, something that affects their livelihoods.
Other members of the Alliance board include two people who have lived with chronic lung disease, Asha Namatovu from the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), Kwizera of the NCD Allaince, and lung health experts Hellen Aanyu and Kenneth Muhwezi-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
