Health
Govt. Asked to Scale up Successes in Buikwe, Mukono CVDs Interventions to the Rest of the Country
Published
4 years agoon

Africa continues to record the highest prevalence of hypertension globally. Studies show that Uganda’s hypertension prevalence stands at 26.4% and public health experts are worried that rising prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) should be curbed lest it contributes to the disease burden.
In Africa, just like other low- and middle-income countries, the burden of disease is transitioning from infectious diseases to NCDs and the World Health Organisation predicts that they are likely to become a major health system challenge in Africa as they are predicted to become the leading cause of death in the region by 2030.
Studies estimate Uganda’s NCDs prevalence at 33 in every 100 people die of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The prevalence of hypertension for instance among adults stands at 26.4% with the highest prevalence in central Uganda (28.5%) which hosts Mukono and Buikwe districts.
In Mukono and Buikwe districts, among persons aged 15 years and above, the age standardized prevalence of hypertension is 27.2%.
Makerere University School of Public Health has for close to three (03) years now been impacting the communities in Mukono and Buikwe districts through its project; Cardiovascular Disease prevention program -Scaling -up Packages for Interventions for Cardiovascular diseases prevention in selected sites in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa (SPICES) Uganda.
The SPICES project focuses on prevention of diseases of the heart and blood vessels. The project has conducted a comprehensive study at both health facility level and community level where a number of community workers and health workers from randomly selected villages and health facilities in Mukono and Buikwe have been trained in cardiovascular disease prevention and control.
So far, a total of 366 health workers and 80 community health workers (CHWs/VHTs) received training. In addition, the project provided the health centers with equipment to support screening and management of cardiovascular diseases. The project team has, with support of health facilities been involved in screening CVD risk, care and management as well as health promotion and profiling at community level.
As a result of this intervention, there are higher volumes of hypertension and diabetes patients being received as a result of sensitization by the community health workers. There are also reports of changes in behavior in lifestyles especially diet and physical activity as well as improved patient health seeking behaviors for chronic services.
For instance, while presenting results at a dissemination workshop held on December 8th 2021 at Colline Hotel in Mukono district, Dr. Geofrey Musinguzi, the Principal Investigator of the SPICES Project expressed that the project has had significant impact in terms of knowledge changes, and in terms of profiles.

“Much as the prevalence of smoking didn’t seem to change, there was a change in frequency of smoking. For example, those who were smoking daily, we saw a reduction from 2018/19 to 2021,” says Dr. Musinguzi.
He adds that there was a significant difference in passive smoking. “Passive smoking is as dangerous as active smoking. At the baseline, people were smoking and exposing their love ones to tobacco but when they were trained from the health facilities and from the community on the dangers of smoking and passive smoking. So, we have seen an attitude of people in families where people are smoking, of if they can’t avoid smoking, doing it away from their families.”
Arising out of the successes of the project so far, Dr. Rhoda Wanyenze, Professor and Dean of Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) has asked government and the Ministry of Health in particular to support noncommunicable diseases care in the districts of Mukono and Buikwe.
Prof. Wanyenze who is also co-principal investigator of the project SPICES project intervention in Mukono and Buikwe could be used as a yardstick to pick lessons for the Ministry of Health to extend the services to other parts of the country.

“We can use this as a learning hub so that we can also get the other regions that do not have the standard for NCD care at the level that we have in these districts. Let us maintain it because it is an opportunity for us to show that it is doable, that we can do something about NCDs and that others can learn something from these districts and facilities and we can do better across the country,” Professor Wanyenze said.
Tereza Ssenjova, a resident of Busabala Mukono said; “I used to be diagnosed with fever, yet I did not have it. Not until recently through SPICES screening that I was told I have high blood pressure and diabetes.”
Prof. Wanyenze urged for the Ministry of Health to rally Ugandans, the leadership at all levels to aggressively advocate for a safer population by preventing and reducing cardiovascular diseases.
“Please do speak about NCDs like the way we speak about COVID-19 lately and the way we have been speaking about other diseases. Encourage people to screen. If there is an opportunity, why not have a machine around you in your place so that you can encourage people to screen periodically. Think of how you can creatively encourage the communities to screen, so that we can discover these diseases early and be able to do something,” says Prof. Wanyenze.
Dr. Gerald Mutungi, assistant Commissioner Health Services- Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) department at the Ministry of Health admits that cardiovascular diseases are on a rise but hastens to add that they can be prevented.
“What we have found out is that the communities, once educated, sensitized can come for screening, but also can follow some of the guidelines given to prevent cardiovascular diseases. This has been shown and we have the data now,” Dr. Mutungi says.

Dr. Mutungi welcomes the results and noted that government will scale-up the interventions.
“We are in evidence-based policy and decision making. This is going to influence our policy. We had already started sensitizing VHTs but we were not sure that actually they can play a big role in prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Now this study is showing that yes, they can. We thought they could only support in distributing bed nets, simple things but they have shown us that they can do a lot in prevention and control of diseases,” he said.
Dr. Musinguzi said the project has had a multi-component intervention including health promotion, screening, training among others.
“We think that this intervention can reach many people. I gave an example of the talking T-Shirt. It has the modifiable risk factors. ‘don’t smoke’, ‘do more exercise’, ‘reduce/avoid alcohol,’ ‘maintain a healthy weight’, ‘go for checkup’ ‘control stress’, ‘eat healthy diet’ among others. In fact, we got reports from VHTs that the messages were received by the population. So, we think all ways of delivering messages must be explored to be able to enhance awareness about CVDs and other NCDs,” Dr. Musinguzi contends.

hailed the SPICES project team for the “wonderful research” and requested the project to include Buvuma and Kayunga districts on the study scope.
“I thank you so much for training the VHTs and our health workers around Mukono and Buikwe districts. This is very good,” said Hajat Nabitaka.
She underscores the need for continued sensitization of the population with a view of changing mindsets to be able to fully realise the benefits.
“Some people think these are diseases of the rich people. Not knowing that even a child in primary school can get diabetes. Not knowing that even an ordinary person in community can get pressure due to the various stress factors. Let us utilize the VHTs to solve many problems including social societal problems such as stress,” Hajat Nabitaka.
Dr. Rawlance Ndejjo, the SPICES Project coordinator said the project has been able to enroll 23 health facilities where it has greatly impacted lives.
He adds that the dissemination is; “a great opportunity to share what we have been doing in field with the rest of the world.”

Some health facilities have have adopted strategies to acquire hypertension and diabetes drugs, and all enrolled facilities are now able to identify and manage Type 1 diabetes, unlike in the past.
SPICES project is currently implemented in Uganda, South Africa, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. It is an implementation science project funded by the European Commission through the Horizon2020 research and innovation.

Article originally published on MakSPH website.
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Health
Call for Applications: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training Course
Published
19 hours agoon
July 11, 2025By
Mak Editor
The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training Course, scheduled to take place from July 30th to August 1st, 2025, at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences’ Conference Room.
Background
The SUSTAIN: Advancing Makerere University Masters of Health Sciences in Bioethics program at Makerere University College of Health Sciences aims at developing and institutionalizing a mentorship program in research ethics that facilitates development of bioethics professionals and health researchers who are committed to the growth and application of research ethics in Uganda’s academic and research institutions to the highest possible degree. The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) course is one of the short courses that introduces trainees to a framework that involves application of established scientific, professional norms and ethical principles in the performance of all activities related to scientific research.
Course objectives
At the end of this course, trainees should be able to identify, manage and prevent research misconduct.
Course outline
Introduction to RCR; Introduction to Professionalism and Ethics; Human subject’s protection and regulatory framework in Uganda; Humane handling of animal research subjects; Conflict of interest;
Responsible laboratory practices; Mentor-mentee relationships; Collaborative research international, industry); Peer review; Research misconduct (including policies for handling misconduct); Community involvement during research in a low resource setting; Responsibility to society and environment; Responsible financial management; Data acquisition, management, sharing and ownership; Responsible authorship, publication and communication.
Target group
The Responsible Conduct of Research course is targeted at Researchers, Research administrators, Research assistants, Study coordinators, Graduate students and Student supervisors. Certificates will only be awarded to participants with 80% attendance.
Course fee: 205,000/=, or 56USD is payable.
The course fee will cater for meals and refreshments during the training period.
Payment & Registration procedure:
9030026194023, Stanbic Bank, Mulago, Makerere University Biomedical Research Center Limited
Dollar Currency:
9030026194147, Stanbic Bank, Mulago, Makerere University Biomedical Research Center Limited
Please Note: Share payment details on email/whatsup and a hardcopy deposit slip delivered on the first day of the training to Miriam Musazi, Department of anatomy, Bioethics Centre, Room C4,
Mob: +256 782 363 996/ +256 701 363 996, Email: mmusazi@gmail.com.
NB. Only those who will have paid by this date will be considered for the course
Venue: The training will take place at Makerere University College of Health Sciences’ Conference room
Health
Call For Applications: PhD Fellowship Training Position
Published
2 days agoon
July 10, 2025By
Mak Editor
Background:
Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS), Kampala, Uganda and Global Health Uganda (GHU); in collaboration with other research consortium partner institutions, including, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kisumu, Kenya; Training and Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE), Blantyre, Malawi; University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), UK have been conducting clinical research on Malaria Chemoprevention. This research has focused on Malaria Chemoprevention in vulnerable patient populations, including children with severe anaemia, children with sickle cell anaemia and pregnant women. As an example, two of our recently completed studies are “The post-discharge malaria chemoprevention in children with severe anaemia [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33264546/] and Malaria chemoprevention in children with sickle cell anaemia [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39718172/]”.
With support from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) body, the consortium is expanding these studies to children with severe acute malnutrition, by conducting a large multi-centre randomized controlled trial entitled “Chemoprevention of malaria in the postdischarge management of children with severe acute malnutrition in Malawi and Uganda”.
In Uganda, the study will be conducted at one or two of their study sites in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Hoima Regional Referral Hospital or Kitgum General Hospital. Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) and Uganda and Global Health Uganda (GHU) seek to appoint a full-time PhD Fellow, on this study. This will be a 4-year post, tenured at Makerere University and hosted at MakCHS.
Expectations of the PhD fellowship:
The PhD fellow will:
- Be a part of the main trial team, and participate fully in its implementation. However, he/she will be expected to design and develop his/her PhD research project, nested in the main trial.
- The area of study will be around “interactions between anaemia and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children or the interactions between malaria and severe acute malnutrition in children”.
- Conduct rigorous research, leading to high quality scientific publications.
- Submit a full research concept and obtain registration in the University by end of year-one. As such, there be an initial appointment for one year, renewable upon satisfactory performance.
- Academic mentorship and supervision will be provided by the research consortium (see above – composed of national and international researchers).
- Doctoral scholarly support and training environment, as well as didactic training in research methods and scientific writing skills will be provided by Makerere University.
- The funding support will cover tuition and a competitive monthly stipend for 4 years, scientific conferences fees/travel and other research-related costs.
Prospective candidates must:
- Hold Master’s of Medicine in Paediatrics and Child Health from a recognized university, and licensed to practice medicine in Uganda by the UMDPC.
- Possess undergraduate training in Medicine and Surgery (MBChB/MBBS/MD).
- Willingness to fully commit time and effort to their PhD studies, expected to start immediately
- Candidate should not hold other/concurrent fellowships
- Having publication experience will be an added advantage.
- Be highly motivated and willing to commit to a career in research and academia.
Application procedure:
Interested applicants should submit their application and supportive documents – listed here below, in one PDF document, in an email titled “PDMC-SAM–PhD Fellowship Application” to hr@globalhealthuganda.org [and cc – chdc.desk@mak.ac.ug] by 25th July 2025. The documents should include the following:
- An application letter (Max. 1 page)
- Motivation statement (Max. 500 words)
- CV (Max. 2 pages), including a list of publications
- Two (2) recommendation letters
- Academic transcripts and certificates for all university qualifications
- A synopsis focusing on the proposed PhD research work, describing briefly what is already known/burden, challenges, the gaps and potential interventions (include references) [Max. 800 words].
Health
Makerere Hailed for Its Leadership in Health Policy and Knowledge Systems
Published
3 days agoon
July 9, 2025
KAMPALA, July 9, 2025 — Makerere University has been hailed as a continental and global leader in health policy and systems research. This recognition came during the Partnerships for Stronger Knowledge Systems in Africa (KNOSA) Learning Forum, held July 8–10, 2025, hosted by Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) with support from the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research.
Delegates from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia applauded Makerere’s role in advancing evidence-informed policymaking and strengthening national knowledge systems. The forum highlighted the institution’s trusted leadership, practical research, and commitment to driving real change.
Dr. Kumanan Rasanathan, Executive Director of the WHO Alliance, praised Makerere’s long-standing role in bridging research and policy:
“You are a shining beacon on the continent and for the world,” he said. “In this moment of crisis, where every health investment must be efficient and equitable, Makerere’s leadership matters more than ever.”
He emphasized the Alliance’s 25-year partnership with Makerere: “We know Makerere University very well. My predecessors have worked with the Alliance since its inception in the 1990s. Makerere has been especially instrumental in advancing the field of health policy and systems.”

Dr. Rasanathan called for a move away from siloed approaches toward more adaptive, coherent systems. He reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to supporting regional initiatives like KNOSA that are driving this shift across Africa.

In the face of current funding cuts, Dr. Christine Musanhu of the WHO Uganda Country Office echoed these sentiments with a stern call to action: “In times of uncertainty, we need national systems that not only generate evidence but also understand and communicate it in ways that drive real change.”
She warned of tightening budgets, citing an 11% cut (roughly $67 million) in global funding for Uganda’s public health programs. “We are being asked to do more with less,” she said, urging countries to reprogram resources towards high-impact, evidence-based interventions.
Adding that, “Evidence must go beyond routine data—it is a measure of transformation.”

This year’s KNOSA forum focused on sharing country-level progress, refining evaluation approaches, enhancing communication products, including scientific publications, and engaging more deliberately with Uganda’s wider policy and research ecosystem.
Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, while sharing the institutional vision, called for African universities to lead from the front in addressing health and development challenges: “We can do all the research in the world, but unless it moves beyond our laptops and lecture rooms into real decision-making spaces, it won’t change lives.”
He noted that Makerere contributes over 80% of Uganda’s academic output and praised MakSPH and the College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) for innovations that have shaped responses to HIV, Ebola, and COVID-19. “Our work, backed by partnerships with government and global collaborators, is proof that African universities must lead from the front.”

Professor Nawangwe urged deeper collaboration within KNOSA: “Our continent is interconnected. We cannot afford to work in silos. We are stronger together.”
Dr. Aku Kwamie, the unit head at the WHO-Alliance, noted that there is a need for partners to shift their thinking regarding policy. She particularly shared three critical transitions to institutionalize evidence use: embedding knowledge within institutions, not just individuals; linking research directly to decision-making; and advancing from isolated academic work to system-level thinking. These shifts, she noted, are essential for embedding evidence into routine governance.

Professor Freddie Ssengooba, a Health Policy and Knowledge Systems expert at MakSPH, reaffirmed Makerere University’s regional leadership in the field and stressed the urgency for African countries to take full ownership of their health systems considering the shifting funding landscape:
“Health policy and knowledge systems research may not be as prominent as epidemiology or disease control,” he said, “but it’s central to how we harvest and connect knowledge with policy and resources. When the vaccine is here and the evidence is clear, that’s when they come to us, asking, “How do we achieve over 80% coverage?”

He praised KNOSA for helping elevate the field’s relevance: “There’s real appreciation for the work we do—not just with Uganda’s Ministry of Health, but across the region.”
Recalling the early collaboration with WHO, he said, “Back in 1997–98, a few of us, myself included, responded to an initial call and began what has now become a long-standing relationship with the WHO Alliance.”
“The Alliance is building capacity across Africa to ensure that research doesn’t stop at findings but goes on to shape decision-making and society,” he disclosed.
Professor Rhoda Wanyenze, the Dean of MakSPH, is currently ambitiously driving her colleagues, staff, and partners to embrace the culture of evidence use. She reiterated the School’s commitment to leading in evidence translation: “I’ve often told the Vice Chancellor—we at the School of Public Health are not in an ivory tower. We are deeply connected to real-world problems.”

To her, the need for a clear framework to improve engagement with decision-makers and address uneven success in research translation has never been greater than now: “Yes, we publish in high-impact journals. But the question is, what change happened because of your evidence?”
“I would love to see the School lead in developing a framework that showcases what we’ve done well and identifies where we can grow.”
She also acknowledged Prof. Ssengooba’s influence in broadening the lens on knowledge management: “You’ve challenged us to think beyond institutions, to consider networks and systems. That’s a gap we must fill.”

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