Uganda health issues

Uganda is a country in East Africa that lies between latitude 4012’N and 1029’S and longitude 29034’W and 3500’E. The current population of Uganda is estimated to be 38.8 million people. The highest mortality rates in Uganda are the infant and maternal mortality rates. This is usually caused by underlying malnutrition factors and poor access to health services and facilities. Agriculture is the backbone of the livelihood of most Ugandans

Health status indicators in Uganda:

•    The stillbirth proportion per 1,000 total births in 2015 was at 25%.

•    The neonatal mortality ratio per 1,000 live births in 2015 was at 22.1%

•    The infant mortality ratio per 1,000 live births in 2015 was at 43.8%

•    The number of infant deaths in 2015 was at 68,436

•    Under-five mortality rate in 2015 was at 66.7%

•    The number of under-five deaths in 2015 was at 101,552

Uganda mortality rate

Mortality rate refers to the rate at which the population dies

Statistics on mortality

•    Uganda’s crude death is 18.4 deaths per 1000 inhabitants. This means that for every 1000 people 18 people die

•    The life expectancy is usually in the range of 53 years for men and 55 years for the females in the Uganda population. The life expectancy is typically affected by HIV/AIDS pandemic and low economic status.

Life expectancy chart

	Female	Male
Healthy life expectancy at birth (years)	55	53
Life expectancy at age 60years (years)	18	17
Life expectancy at birth (years)	64	60

Adult mortality is slightly higher among men than women which is usually 380 and 307 deaths per 1000 population respectively. For both sexes, the mortality rate per 1000 lives is 344

20%of women and 25% of men are likely to die between the age of 15years and 50 years.

Maternal mortality rate is another issue affecting Uganda. Maternal mortality has been on the rise in the past decade.

The high maternal mortality rates are caused by 

62% of women deliver outside health facilities while only 38% of them deliver in the healthy facility. 79% of women in the urban setting deliver in hospitals. 75% of educated women are likely to give birth in hospitals while 25% illiterate women.

Infant mortality is also oh high rate in Uganda.

Infant mortality is distributed from age 0-59months. 

•    0-28days is at 34%

•    1-59months is at 66%

In Uganda, currently, the child mortality rate is at 81 out of 1000 infants born.

Infant mortality rate in Uganda is a good indicator of overall health and basis of life expectancy at birth and also a major indicator of the socio-economic status of the population.

Diseases in Uganda

Refers to the disabling factors in the population the most common ones being disease and injuries

The indicators of morbidity are incidence rate which relates to the rate of occurrence of a particular disease (only new cases). Another indicator of morbidity refers to number of a person who has a particular disease/condition at given point in time per 1000 population

The burden of diseases in Uganda is as follows:

Summary of Burden of disease
Communicable	68%
Non-communicable	18%
Injuries	13%

The prevalence of under-five of the most common diseases is as follows:

The percentage of children aged 6-59months with anemia is 50%

The percentage of children under five years with diarrhea was 26%

The percentage of children under five years with fever was 41%

The percentage of babies with low birthweight of reported births 10%

The percentage of children under five stunted was 33%

The percentage of children under-five wasted was 50%

The percentage of children under-five underweight was 14%

The percentage of children under-five overweight was 3%

In adults, the incidence of the most common diseases was as follows:

Malaria is estimated to cause the highest disease burden in Uganda with about 10 and 12 million clinical cases treated in the public health sector

Causes of morbidity and mortality. 

Among the most prevalent causes include the following:

•    Malaria among the leading diseases

•    Poor access to health facilities

•    Low patient health worker ratio

•    Poor economic status in Uganda

•    High levels of illiteracy among the population

•    Low investment in the health sector

Uganda foreign aid and programs

•    Action against hunger.  This is an international organization that carries out programs aimed at bettering the livelihood of the population in Uganda

•    Save the children. Works to ensure children’s rights are adhered to.

•    Caritas Australia in Uganda. Works to improve the livelihood of the people of Uganda.

•    Irish aid Uganda works to promote  the accessibility of children to quality education in the most vulnerable communities

•    USAID. We work to improve the livelihood of the people of Uganda through various programs

•    Action aid international. This is a global movement that works with people to enhance human rights and defeat poverty for all

•    Abstinence-only HIV/Aids programs in Uganda.

Health providers in Uganda

Health workforce	Density per 1000 population
Community and traditional health worker	0.188
Dentistry personnel	0.015
Environmental and public health worker	0.016
Health management and support workers	0.107
Nursing and midwifery personnel	1.307
Laboratory health worker	0.17
Other health worker	0.534

Comparison between USA and Uganda

•    Life expectancy in the USA is at 76.9 for females and 81.6 for males while in Uganda the life expectancy is at 53 for men and 55 for women

•    In the USA, the infant mortality rate is at six deaths per 1000lives while in Uganda the rate is at 18 deaths per 1000 live births

•    The mortality rate in the USA is 600 deaths per 100,000 population while in Uganda it is at 1500 deaths per 100,000 live births.

•    The leading cause of morbidity in the USA is heart disease, cancer, and stroke while in Uganda it is HIV/AIDS, malaria and pneumonia 

REFERENCES 

UGANDA PHARMACEUTICALS & HEALTHCARE REPORT. (2016). Uganda Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Report, (4), 1-51.

World Health, O. (2013). World Health Statistics 2013. Geneva: World Health Organization.