ACCA donates Sickle cell kits to Ministry of Health
ACCA the global body for professional Accountants, this afternoon donated 15000kits for Sickle cell at the Ministry of Health. Its an honor to have another donation towards Sickle cell in less than a month after that from the Buganda Kingdom that was witnessed at UNHLS/CPHL on the 24th of Last month.
The burden of ill health is so huge and we see people coming up to support Ugandans, we get encouraged. For instance Diabetes in children, the children's lives depend on insulin. So there is also need to contribute towards that too.
The Commisioner National Disease Control, Dr. Tusiime Patrick was so honored to interact with accountants. He said, "We have been struggling to deliver health services and people do not tend to appreciate what we go through, but now am more energized we have other Ugandans/ partners." He also went ahead to hope that as science and technology improves, one day we shall get a break through at treating this like having Gene therapy e.g for Haemophilia. And he forwarded his heartfelt thanks.
In absensure, the State Minister for Health, Hon. Sarah Opendi was so grateful to the ACCA group. In her speech that was read by Director Clinical Services, Dr. Olaro, she said it is just a matter of time before we deal with the situation(Sickle cell disease). She also said that the sickle cell trait suvives and is able to spread because it provides protection against malaria. i.e carriers survive because they are protected against malaria and the traits are about 20% in the Busoga and Northern regions. We only need to prevent it because babies born with Sickle cell, 80% die by the age of 5yrs.
Sickle cell is a genetic problem largely among the African origin. An appeal to the public to rise and fight against SCD. The good news unlike HIV, is that it is a preventable disease and has only one route which is through child birth. If we close that tap, we can drastically reduce the incidence of SCD however we shall need to have massive screening.
Dr. Olaro went ahead and said that hydroxyurea is one of the safest drugs that can improve on the complication of the children. It is to be included on the basic medicine list of sickle cell and also working on availing monococcal vaccine for sicklers of age 2yr and above to contain the sickle cell problem. He appealed to UNHLS to coordinate the youth and all stakeholders and provide accountability of them all at the end of the screening process. More emphasis should be put on premarital testing & counseling and new born screening. We look forward to further the collaboration. As its not good to save the drowning and yet you are also drowning, he advised ACCA to also make sure their prospective members know their statuses.
