The Ministry of Health is set to equip Regional Referral Hospitals with a Neurosurgeon Doctor to handle children with Spina Bifida and Hydrocepharus defects.
This was revealed by Dr. Olaro Charles, the director curative services at the ministry of health on the 25th, October during the commemoration of the World Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus day held at Silversprings hotel in Kampala.
The day was marked under the theme; A call for National action to reduce the prevalence of birth defects through food fortification; folic acid supplementation and dietary diversity in the country.
Uganda has only three hospitals that treat Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus; CURE Children’s Hospital in Mbale, Mbarara Referral Hospital and Mulago Hospital, and according to Ministry of Health Statistics, about 12,000 children suffering from Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus visit these three facilities annually seeking for medical operations. The statistics also show that 600 to 800 children Uganda are born with Spina bifida and 3600 to 5400 are born with Hydrocephalus each year.
The Ministry of health Director of Clinical Services Dr. Olaro Charles says they will now embark on the process of availing the specialized doctor to the respective hospitals with the necessary equipment like CT scans since in the current budget, parliament allocated money for the equipment to be purchased.
“To effectively use the CT scans in regional hospitals then we need to deploy neurosurgeons and when you have them at those facilities then they you can handle those services”
He also urged expectant mothers to always take folic acid from the first days of their pregnancy.
“What normally happens is that when people miss their periods, they would want to wait for another month to confirm whether they are indeed pregnant and by that time you are already beyond 28 days and the defect is already formed. I urge that the moment you miss the menstrual periods visit the health facility and then you can be given the folic acid supplementation.”
The National Coordinator of Spina Bifida and Hydrocepharus Association of Uganda (SHAU) Ruth Naluggya asked women of child bearing age to watch what they feed eat and include vegetables, fruits and at least one tablet of Folic Acid to reduce the risk of giving birth to a child with such a defect.
Naluggya also called for equality for children with Spina bifida. She says the infrastructure and environmental accessibility is a big barrier to social inclusion of children with spina bifida for example in the educational sector. She says the environment at schools are not fully accessible fot these children, and yet they need clean water, soap, toilet and wash facilities to clean themselves about four or five times in a day.
