By Willy Cho woo
In Gulu/Gulu University.
The protracted armed conflict between the rebel Lords’ Resistance Army LRA and Uganda government that lasted for over two decades in the north has led to destruction of infrastructures and lives. Worst among others is the health service.
Notably there have been rampant cases of outbreak of diseases such as Ebola, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B, Suicide and Epilepsy (Nodding syndrome) in the region which claimed dozen of f lives.
Gulu University which started in the year 2003 to transform the region that has been ravaged by the armed confirmed has now embarked on doing a number of research works to help bridge the gaps have been left by this burden
Emilio Ovuga, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Gulu University says this is the only way to support the health, social and psycho-culture in the region.
Dr.Ovuga who is also a lead consultant for ongoing Research support works at the university says at moment they are involved in doing a number of research works related to mental issues
Some of the research being done include Post-conflict mobility: opportunities for primary health care in post-conflict Northern Uganda.
This study is to determine the patterns of migration and mobility in Northern Uganda in relation to morbidity patterns and the provision of services for non-communicable diseases at community level.
“We are also testing and replicating the feasibility of lay community counselors being able to prevent suicide by providing psychological first aid to individuals in crisis at household level.”, he adds.
The University under this study has so far trained 88 primary health care providers at rural health facilities in Amuru and Districts in Northern Uganda, 54 volunteer lay counselors in Gulu District and 14 research field assistants attached to the Primary Health Care Project in order to promote access to essential basic mental health services in the district and successfully implement the mental health promotion and suicide prevention strategy.
To enhance the success of our initiative, “we have developed district wide referral system from household level to the regional referral hospital in Gulu. We earlier were able to reduce suicide rates in Adjumani district, another post-conflict district in the West Nile region of Northwestern Uganda by 87% over a three year period using volunteer community counselors in 2004-2007.”,Dr.Ovuga narrates.
The ongoing study in Gulu district indicates that trained volunteer lay peer counselors (Village Helpers) are able to reduce suicide rates by at least 75% in less than one year and to have created awareness among the population about the feasibility and effectiveness of early mental
Health care intervention using lay members of the community under the supervision of mental health professionals.
The university is also doing a research on Nodding syndrome: a possible relationship with mycotoxins?
This study is to find the potential role of food contamination with fungi that are known to contaminate foodstuffs at the time of harvest and or storage in Northern Uganda.
Under the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI-MESAU is to contribute to increased number of health workers by contributing to increased undergraduate students admissions to Ugandan medical schools, contribute to retention of doctors in under-served rural areas of Uganda, contribute to increased access to basic health care and to improve the quality of medical education by standardizing medical education at Ugandan medical schools.
The university has completed a number of research among which it include; Neurocysticercosis – a neglected disease in Sub-Saharan Africa under German Research Foundation Project
This was to determine the prevalence, risk factors for epilepsy in Northern Uganda .determine the prevalence of neurocysticercosis among individuals with epilepsy and to develop a diagnostic serologic test for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis among individuals with epilepsy in Northern Uganda.
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