Rest In Peace Whitney But We Still Don’t Know What Exactly Killed You!
13 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in health, international, International Issues
Whitney(RIP) with M.J(RIP)
It is very sad to hear of the death of Whitney Houston. Her music will always be something to keep us on the toes for a long time. However, I beg to differ from some people who say that she would still be alive if it were not for her relationship with Bobby Brown. The truth is that if God wanted Whitney to die at 48, she would still be dead regardless of Bobby Brown or not. We are all going to die of something. There are many variables that contribute to someone dying of drugs or smoking. For instance, there are people who are druggist but still live for a long time.
Epidemiologists, using statistics, tell us the like hood of suffering dire consequences from drugs but a microbiologist usually identifies the actual chemical or genetic mechanisms involved in one’s death.
So, there’s no way of concluding that Whitney died because of drugs. Yes, there may be a causal relationship between her death and her lifestyle but it may be a combination of other unknown (classified) medical conditions.
Whitney with Bobby Brown( ex-husband)
My argument is basically that before making any conclusion that Whitney died of drugs, we ought to consider other variables that may have contributed to her death. Unless an autopsy is performed and the cause of death declared publicly, we cannot know for sure know what exactly killed Whitney. To point a finger at ‘drugs’ as the general reason for the expiration of her life is meaningless.
In medicine, there are innumerable variables and contingencies, and thus ironclad statements cannot be made or relied upon. You cannot come out as a doctor and say that Whitney died of drugs unless you have done some tests on her body.
Actually, let’s leave drugs aside because I have seen drug addicts living for a long time, and go with an example of cancer. Although cancer of the breast, prostate, colon, or any area will be debilitating and painful, it does not result in death until it spreads to the heart, lungs, kidneys, or the central nervous system. We also know that even after spreading to these vital areas, death can take weeks, months, or even years.
So, some people diagnosed with cancer are still breathing today because their body systems have not allowed the cancer to attack the vital areas. To put it in simple terms, dying suddenly is ‘consistent’ with other unexplained factors. Whitney died ”suddenly” and there is no way we can totally attribute this to her drug problem. I’m not saying we should rule it out, either, but we cannot put that on her death certificate until an autopsy is done. What has happened is that the media has developed a hypothesis as to what caused her death but it may not be true.
I’m a stronger believe in God and as a result I think about death all the time. I believe God can make people live longer or shorter if he chooses to. I believe we cannot dodge death however much we try but religion also tells us to look after ourselves, a reason I don’t eat pork; drink alcohol, take drugs, e.t.c
Secondly, there is nothing heroic in being a junkie and continuously failing to beat the addiction. I know every expert in the world will disagree with me, but I don’t buy into the disease part of drug abuse. The first time you reach for a substance you are making a choice. Every time you go back, you’re making a personal choice. I feel very strongly about that.
Drugs have always been part of most celebrities or famous people’s lives. It is very rare to find a person in these developed nations who has never taken drugs at some stage in their lives. At least, most of the ‘Bazungu’ I know have taken drugs at some stage in their life. Even David Cameron was a drug party boy at university, and the media tried to crucify him about it in his early years in office.
Think of all the tabloid stories about celebrities whacked out on drugs from Whitney Houston (RIP), that blond crack head chick (Olson), Sir Paul McCartney or his late wife Linda McCartney, who were both arrested several times at airport checkpoints for possession of marijuana, Lindsay Lohan or Courtney Love- to any of the dozens of drug addled pop stars out there. Not forgetting the most famous one of all, Elvis, who died of an overdose while sitting on a toilet and asphyxiated from his face being buried in his carpet with his bare ass stuck in the air and it became a week long TV event on every station.
There is also a story that JFK was on drugs but he was a full president and he probably would have lived longer if he had not been assassinated. New findings by noted historian Robert Dallek dug up surprising dirt on JFK, where medical files showed that he (JFK) routinely popped pain killers, anti-anxiety pills, stimulants and even hormones, up to eight medications a day. IT’S PARTY TIME!!!
His supporters counteracted this by saying that JFK was using drugs prescribed by a physician because he had adrenal insufficiency and back pain from his war injuries. One could argue that the physician was practicing bad medicine.
The truth is that people take drugs and all kinds of substances into their bodies but some live longer and some die early. When explaining their death early or longer, we look for a variety of factors rather than just drugs.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Student of Public Health
Dr. Specioza Kazibwe And ”Sex” Seem To Be Inseparable Nowadays
18 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in health, Women issues
Friends,
Former Vice President of Uganda,Dr.Kazibwe’s ‘sex’ language seems to be getting out of control. First, we were hit with the headline:’’ I have got a big hole’’ and now we are at:’’ sex is not dirty’’. She may be trying to promote public health but she may create more worms than she intended to. So maybe she needs to reflect on the kind of language she is using while in public. That kind of language may be ok in certain situations but it may carry a message which may not be entirely appropriate for children. She is giving us too much info which is kind of a turn -off.
The way she keeps using words such as ‘penis’ and ‘vagina’ irresponsibly, one may be led to believe that she’s unknowingly suffering from a disease called Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome (PSAS) or ‘Akasagazi’ in Luganda. PSAS is a neurological condition that was first documented in 2001 by Dr. Sandra Leiblum but some people at home just take it to be ‘normal’. I’m not saying that Kazibwe has got it but a language may make one to believe that she may be silently suffering and therefore needs help.
With Dr.Kazibwe, what we are up against is not just dirty words she keeps pouring out of her mouth but the effect her words may have on the overall community since she is a high profile person.If she wanna talk dirty, let her keep a lid on it and keep it for the bedroom with her partner. I for one have no problem holding the former vice President to a higher standard than I hold myself, and feel not the least bit hypocritical about doing so.
It is not like I don’t want some Ugandans to change their attitude towards sex especially the men who beat up their wives and then later demand for sex as if women are sex objects, but what really concerns me is that someone that spouts off half truths and inaccuracies with intemperate language is teaching our children!
Nze mbikoye
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Mental Health Is the Least of the Concerns for African Governments but this will Change with Politics
01 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in Corruption, health, international
Folks,
Mental illness is the least of the worries to governments in the third world and this will not change soon due to bad politics and poor management of resources. However, the future looks bright for Africa in terms of health professionals because a lot of Africans have trained in the developed nations as mental health nurses and doctors. In the UK here, for instance, the profession seems to be dominated by mainly Zimbabweans and Nigerians because it is very easy to get jobs as nurses. A lot of Africans are mental health nurses.All we need is political stability and a few hospital buildings and equipments on the ground.
So when Africa gets rid of the current crop of bad leaders, we shall have enough professionals ready to come back home and help in matters of development, health, politics and investment. Personally, I’m not so worried about this area as long as we sort out the bad politics. Africa doesn’t have enough mental health hospitals or services simply because of bad politics. For example, the money the Uganda government wasted on Dr.Kazibwe to study in Harvard could have built a good hospital in Iganga for the mentally ill but those in power so it different. Kazibwe was sponsored to study a master’s degree and PHD at Harvard University in Health Economics but we have not benefited much from her. Her accommodation alone cost the country over $3000 per semester as part of the shs.2.5 billion that was reportedly given to her for the studies.
Mental health in the UK
I don’t know much about the mental health services in USA apart from what I have watched on TV. However, I know that here in the UK, the medical model is something looked at as the number one solution to mental health problems. The government has not invested much in community nursing or doctors despite the fact that they are paid more money than nurses on the wards. I also read somewhere that it costs the UK government more money to keep a patient on the ward than in the community, but I don’t know why they insist on the medical model. I guess it is because it is easy to administer and assess the results unlike the social model, and running government is usually about paper work, administration of people and resources, and assessing results. That’s why nurses on the mental wealth wards spend more time doing paper work than the time they spend with service users (patients). Ward Managers also tend to concentrate more on the nurses’ paperwork than the 1:1s they spend with service users.
In order to promote the social model, the government should try to promote community empowerment first, but this is something that has remained more of just rhetoric since 1990s. The then Labour government talked about community empowerment in its two White papers but it did less. David Cameron’s idea too of the ‘Big society’’ [community empowerment] is also a non-starter. He came up with a White paper in September last year but it was giving too much power and control of funds to GPs.
The UK government here cannot easily pump a lot of money in the social model and there are finding it hard to create a balance due to shortage of funds. The NHS is already expensive as it is. First is that there is almost no connection between monies raised and monies spent on health, partly because the Treasury has always resisted hypothecation of revenues! And partly because the NI payments come nowhere near the cost of running those parts of the welfare state.
NHS budget is scheduled to rise above £ 105 billion soon. With a population of 60 million odd that´s £ 1,750 per annum per head. Take out the pensioners, the children and those not in the labor force (stay at home single moms, the disabled, the sick, etc ) and I reckon you´ve got an economically active population of half that, or an annual charge of £ 3,500 per head just for the health service (Just as an example, this is about 70 % of the current basic pension payments ). Libya is also now costing the British Government an arm and leg as Gaddafi doesn’t look to go soon yet more than £40m are spent monthly on the war.
Because of the limitations in spending, nurses have reduced on wards; few social workers are attached to offices such as the CRISIS RESOLUTIONS such that when a patient comes in on section 136, they have to be kept in for ages while waiting for a social worker and the Duty doctor. For the meantime, the rest of the staff in the CRISIS RESOLUTION have got no time to spend with clients because they have got other things to do. At the end of the day, when a patient is struggling or violent, they will give just them medication to calm them down because nobody has got time for them. There is no time, there is less staffing, there is no money, to waste on the social model, and that is why the medical model will remain dominant in mental health for a long time.
I still have a feeling that the medical model is also still more dominant in USA than the social model despite what some people say. For instance, when Reagan was president, he behaved almost in the same way as the governments here do recently when it comes to mental health funding. In 1980s, the Reagan Administration cut all funding for community housing for the mentally ill. Then the Reagan Administration cut most funding for Community Mental Health Centers. Treatment and housing for destitute mentally ill patients suddenly disappeared. The people who needed it went the only place they could, out into the streets.
I again read somewhere that Funding for mental health and housing has never been restored since Reagan days. So how does the USA promote the social model effectively when community nursing, housing for mentally-ill is not a government priority? Actually, i hear that tens of thousands of mentally ill people are now locked up in jails and prisons. They are not getting treatment.
The medical model is generally still dominant in the west. It is only recently that the government and institutions are reviewing it at greater length to include the social model on the ladder. For instance, students of public health are now taught more of the social model than the medical model though there are both important.
‘’Eddogo’’ or witchcraft
The educated in Africa use ‘Eddogo’ as escapism when they are mentally ill while the uneducated are just ignorant. Nevertheless, Africans need to stop calling people with mental health problems ”mad’. It is a bad tag that has made a lot of people to conceal this problem because of the stigma people have towards people with mental health.
In USA, for example, during their previous presidential campaigns, I heard that one of the presidential candidates, McCain, attempted suicide twice long time ago, yet his campaign refused to release his full mental health records to the public. Nevertheless, his opponents did not make too much political capital out of it. If it was in Uganda, even president Museveni would have made it a serious campaign issue as he did with Besigye and HIV in 2001.
The truth is that mental illness is a real, debilitation disease, every bit as serious as cancer or heart disease, but it can be treated with the right medication. If anyone needs proof, they just read Bukedde newspaper every day. The stories there are so shocking. One approach to help you identify the mentally ill in our society is to understand their psychological processes. Once you understand why these people behave so irrationally, you can communicate more effectively with them.
There are a lot of stories in Bukedde where you find a man or woman who has killed their family simply due to depression and anxiety, but people still keep talking about Vodoo/Eddogo/ Jinns.
By the way, I have got a theory about witchcraft or Eddogo in poor societies. I believe things like witchcraft are signs of a poor and broken society. I also believe that witchcraft among family members symbolizes a broken and divided family within an already broken and poor society. If the society is already broken, witchcraft plays a role to save lives in big numbers in the sense that at least people don’t resort to practical means to settle their differences. If, for instance, woman A realizes that witchcraft does not work against woman B, she could find it easy to resort to practical ways of eliminating Woman B, but because she believes in witchcraft woman B is still breathing.
With a society with fewer resources to solve murders, I think witchcraft itself may be a blessing in disguise. I think it was naturally designed to save the lives of an ignorant population. As the country’s middle class increases, things like witchcraft and mental illness will be brought more in the lime light and get addressed urgently. At the moment, there isn’t a lot that is going to change in a country, like Uganda, as far as these issues are concerned. Yes, we can get the media to keep the fire burning but it won’t make much difference because the policy makers in the country themselves are ‘escapists”.
However, what is happening in developing countries now was almost a similar story even in developed nations, such as USA, till when the society eventually changed itself politically, economically and socially.
In USA, for instance, mental patients were once treated as prisoners. The mental health movement of the 1950s led by the national Mental Health Association was able to remove public mental hospitals from control by prison authorities and place them under medical administrators. In the 1960s, the same folks made it possible for people who needed treatment in Community Mental Health Centers instead of hospitals. It was almost the same story in the UK when you visit their history. The Welsh were the biggest ‘Balogo’ in the UK, but all that is now water under the bridge.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
BESIGYE AND MUSEVENI NEED A FOOTBALL GAME NOW
29 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Corruption, Economics, Entertainment, FDC, health, IPC, media in Uganda, Politics, security, UPDF
Gilbert Arinaitwe 'punishing' Dr.Besigye's car for moving to Kampala
Now that calm has temporarily returned to Kampala after some body from ‘’above’’ changed his mind to allow Dr.Besigye to go for treatment in Nairobi, let me try to comment on the most beautiful game called football. My team, Chelsea FC, is out of the Champions League but I couldn’t stop smiling this week on Wednesday when I watched Lionel Messi ”teargassing” the Real Madrid defense in the last minutes. It was a real thriller especially his last goal.I had never seen anything like that since Diego Maradona days. It was a beauty which even brought a smile on Jose Mourinho’s face!
Now, the real question on my mind is that ‘can football be used as a weapon to settle political and economic differences in Uganda too as it has happened in Ivory coast before Gbagbo made a mess of things after clearly losing the election?’’. Let us remember that Ivorian, Didier Drogba, did a lot to bring the two opposing sides together some couple of years ago, by organizing a football game that was played in the country’s capital, and it was attended by both Gbagbo and Quatara. Peace came back into the country and both sides agreed to have an election which Quatara won but Gbagbo refused to concede defeat. The rest is history as they say and I even don’t know where Gbagbo is after watching him on TV caught like a chicken thief by the French forces from his presidential bunker.
Kampala riots on 29/04/11
Nonetheless,with the current riots looking not to end soon in Uganda especially with Museveni swearing that Besigye will never be allowed to walk on foot in Kampala city, it is imperative that we all find a way of bringing the two sides together to find a way forward. So, I suggest that we organize a football game at Namboole stadium and invite both of them to attend. I will be happy to referee the game or be the goal keeper if both sides have got no problem with it and as long as they can meet my flight costs from England. Yes, I’m still annoyed with the way the police and army have inhumanly treated Besigye but , I promise, I won’t give a red card to the NRM side if I’m allowed to referee the game.
Back to the Real Madrid Vs Barcelona game in the champions League, It might not have been beautiful but it was sweeter than the contents of the sugar bowl for those who appreciate Messi’s talent. For me, I think the current Barcelona team is the greatest team in the history of football, and the son of a factory worker and a cleaner remains the world’s best player up to now. I don’t care what Alex Ferguston says about Real Madrid’s Ronaldo Christian because whoever watched that game now knows that Messi is way up there.
Nevertheless, I always ask myself why Uganda have not been able to turn their football into an a big business after years of listening to teams such as Villa FC, Express, KCC and others on our radios. In the UK here, teams such as Aston Villa, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur were floated on stock exchanges in 1990s, and they have been realizing considerable profits for the existing shareholders for a long time.Actually, it is fair to say that football became a business model in England officially in the 1990s when I was still doing my O’levels at Kibuli Secondary school. The media industry played and it still does the biggest part in helping the clubs make money out of football.
Football’s profitability is interlocked with that of the media industry here in Europe and it is greatly associated with football celebrities. So the simple business plan I’m giving to Ugandans back home interested in this kind of business, like my OB Kasule Mujib, is that in order for a club to be successful, one needs: to go into partnership with the media, create a celebrity footballer in the country, allow fans to buy shares into the club if the owner hasn’t got enough money and get good coaches. The stadium should also be located in a populated area to target more customers. The only populated area of any size in England where there are no clubs is Cornwall, which has a strong rugby tradition.
The people running football clubs at community level in Uganda should get serious as well. It is so disappointing to hear that the football club we used to watch as kids at Kangulumira is still in the same ‘ill’ shape. Football is a joint business production that requires a lot of clubs for anybody to make money. Instead of people just concentrating on about 6 big clubs we have got in the country right now, they should also find a way of developing the smaller clubs in the rural areas. For instance, The English Premiership was formed by top clubs in 1992 because they wanted a bigger slice of the available revenue, particularly television revenue (which they were able to increase), and a bigger say in how the game was run. All clubs make money regardless of what position they finish under at the end of the season. For instance, Chelsea may finish 2nd this season but there won’t be a bigger difference with Manchester United in terms of TV money shared at the end of the season.
So may be, we should follow this formula too in Uganda and increase the number of clubs involved in the top national league. This system can, in the long run, also help the clubs to identify talent at community or village level. I’m sure there are a lot of boys in villages who are capable of becoming the next ‘Messi if given a chance to develop their talents.
Our government should do everything in its power to help people who intend to invest in football business. I don’t know what the Ministry of Sport and Culture does about this but I have a few suggestions of my own. They could subsidize the costs of stadium construction and maintenance. They could invest money in community led projects especially sports at village level.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom
Female Circumcision is still a Big Worry for the World that requires urgent attention
04 Dec 2010 12 Comments
in Africa, culture, cultures, East Africa, health, international, social issues, Tribalism
Sabiny girls after the circumcision ritual in Bukwo district(Courtesy of the Newvision)
Dear readers,
The article on the front page of Newvision on 04/12/10 showing pictures of sabiny girls that had been circumcised is justifiably one of the biggest cultural outcries so far in this year’s presidential elections. Female circumcision is a global problem and I think international organisations such as WHO need to urgently put it on their agenda in future conferences to be held and seriously try to do something about it. I remember watching a documentary on channel 4 here in the UK, a copy I kept up to now, that showed that some Muslim societies ,such as in Egypt, also practicing this evilness in the name of Islam. Female circumcision is done by removing the tip of the clitoris because it is believed that women should not enjoy sex but are to serve only to pleasure the man and have children. These female mutilation things are not a part of Islam. They’re just cultural traditions of a bunch of Arabs who happen also to be Muslim. But it’s sort of like American slaveholders who were Baptists. Slavery isn’t really a part of the Baptist creed even if some slaveholding Baptists thought it should be. There is nothing in the Koran that justifies this behaviour or requires it. CNN one time also ran a series that showed girls being circumcised but there was nothing Islamic about it.
Cutting of the woman’s clitoris is so wrong because it affects her sexual enjoyment and satisfaction. It even makes me sick when I watch some people defend this inhuman behaviour because to defend this behaviour is not only ignorant, but just as inhuman and grossly irresponsible as those who teach it! The whole exercise turns a woman into simply a domestic servant and baby factory. I agree that there should be freedom of cultural thought but certain rituals are detrimental to people and shouldn’t be carried out especially on minors who can’t give proper consent.
Unlike male circumcision, there are absolutely no medical grounds for female circumcision. Male circumcision is practiced by both Muslims and Jews. Historically, Roman emperor Hadrian tried to ban this practice among the Jews as he believed that it stopped them from assimilating with the Greeks and Roman but he found himself with a war on his hands.
It’s true that circumcision is a painful experience as it was done to me when I was above the baby stage. My grandfather who was my guardian deceived me that they were taking me to Kampala city for a ride but I woke up in Kawolo hospital with some pain on my penis. I remember this pain very well because I was a bit older when it was done but I don’t think babies do remember this pain when they grow up. Yes, when there are still babies or infants, they feel and express this pain in stereotypic ways involving vocalization, facial expression, body movements and autonomic activity but they later become OK and smile normally. The wound heals normally without undue bleeding or infection, and the outcome will just be a ‘normal circumcised penis’.
One does not need to be circumcised or uncircumcised first to know the advantages or disadvantages of male circumcision as there is a lot of literature out there about this issue. For instance, there is a big body of evidence that shows that most women prefer circumcised penis for appearance and hygiene. Furthermore, some women are not attracted to the smell of the uncircumcised penis.
Let me elaborate: when a man has got that foreskin still intact on their penis, he feels greater sexual sensation during sex due to the greater sensitivity of the protected glans, and that the foreskin is an erogenous zone in itself. A foreskin and its full complement of ‘neuroreceptors’ (as scientists call them) can easily make the uncircumcised man to come or ejaculate very fast thus leaving a woman in limbo. My understanding is that, because of the protection of the foreskin, the glands of the uncircumcised penis are more sensitive and thus more stimulated. One could deduce that therefore the circumcised penis results in prolonged pleasure due to reduced sensitivity. Since circumcised men have no feeling in their foreskin (in fact, no foreskin at all), the only form of stimulation comes in the form of pressure on the head and the shaft of the penis, and in the orgasm itself. This helps the uncircumcised to prolong during love making and thus helping the women to enjoy the whole game for longer.
Uncircumcised men also often experience pain during their first sexual act while circumcised males do not. This is because the ‘frenulum’ is removed, along with the foreskin, during the circumcision operation. The uncircumcised penis contains a certain piece of skin called the frenulum – that is attached to both the prepuce and the glans of the penis. The frenulum serves the same purpose as the hymen in virgin girls/women, i.e. as a barrier to unwanted or premature sexual activity. During the first act of intercourse (or masturbation), the frenulum is torn from the mucous membrane that keeps it in place, a change that subsequently allows the foreskin to be fully retracted over the entire ‘head’ of the penis.
Uncircumcised men also have to deal with foreskin infections a lot more frequently because of the growth medium the foreskin provides them little bugs. A circumcised penis is easier to keep clean.
There is also evidence to show a lower occurrence of cervical cancer of women married to circumcised men because it (Cervical cancer) is associated with herpes, which is one of those STDs that is curable. Male circumcision also helps preclude a rare kind of penile cancer in males. There is a slightly higher risk of HIV in partners of uncircumcised men due to the human papillomavirus but this can be alleviated with proper hygiene.
Because of the above advantages, there is a wide spread acceptance of male circumcision in the developed nations especially in the United States in comparison to female genital circumcision which tends to be more selfish than anything else.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
The Catholic Church Should Openly Support Condom Use and Contraception
29 Nov 2010 1 Comment
in cultures, health, luwero war after 1980 'theft', Museveni and NRM, Religion, science
Pope Benedict XVI
The Catholic Church has done a lot of immeasurable good things in Africa and elsewhere in the world but I still cannot understand why they cannot openly support the use of condoms to reduce Sexually Transmitted Diseases(STDs), and the use of contraception methods. The church has played a crucial role in educating; treating and bringing hope to a lot of Africans. It has quietly worked against evil systems, such as South Africa’s apartheid and African dictatorships, as was the case, for instance, when one cardinal was allegedly used to support Yoweri Museveni’s NRA rebels against Obote and Iddil Amin regimes in Uganda. Pope John Paul II also worked against communism and strongly opposed the war in Iraq, calling it a defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally justified.
Nonetheless, recently, Pope Benedict XVI seems to have done a simple but not a ‘sharp’ u-turn on use of condoms when he said that people should use them which were a bit better than his April, 2009 message on his trip in Africa when he said that the use of condoms worsens the HIV problem. Benedict was born in 1927 and he has seen how the world has been changing since. So we expect him to see a lot of things differently though we expect him to review the abstinence message too. The church has been preaching abstinence outside married life and faithfulness within it and probably it would be effective if it was followed, but the truth is that people don’t do so.
There’s a lot of disinformation on the internet about regarding the safety of condoms. I suspect that the Catholic Church or religious leaders have something to do with it. The main problem with condoms is that they may break, or fall off when using them. I just don’t see how an HIV virus would get through these pores when water doesn’t. It’s physically impossible. Unless the condom is damaged, the risk to HIV is very low.
Therefore, the Vatican and other religious groups’ claims about permeable condoms are wrong. The World Health Organisation has already advised people to disregard messages from the church about this issue. The message of “abstinence” and “high-risk partners” should be preached alongside the use of condoms. There are some people who cannot abstain from knocking on certain ‘HIV addresses’ even if they are not landlords or tenants. They may just go there just to drop ‘letters’ or ‘leaflets’ or ‘ just delivering take-aways’, and we need to find a way to protect them. So postmen, ambulance people, take-away people and marketers all need to be protected from the dogs in the houses.
Several organisations including Lancet, a UK Medical journal, have been criticising the church over their condom message and I think the criticism has started bearing some fruits going by the pope’s recent message. We just hope that the rest of the church takes this message seriously, after all, condoms have already been proven as effective, in most African countries and beyond a doubt that they help in reducing the spread of HIV-AIDS and other STDs.
The Church’s prohibition of contraception is also wrong since it does not seem to have any Biblical foundation, apart from the story of Onan spilling his seed on the ground, which is a special case. It seems more likely to have come from Aristotle, the source of much bad doctrine. The Pope has continually forced his own views on how women may control their own fertility but I think it is wrong.
The pope’s U-turn in just a year’s time is a confirmation that merely because one is famous (or wealthy) doesn’t make one intellectually or morally superior to the rest of humanity. In reality, most of the so called famous people have a very limited understanding about how the rest of the world works, and are more interested in feeding their own fragile egos than examining the consequences of their actions. Many of them access no information, and base opinions solely on what is fashionably correct. They aren’t reviewing abstracts in the journals looking for relevant articles, reading up on epidemiological studies, or picking up a calculator to crunch some numbers to do a basic sanity check before publicly uttering inanities like some statements that have come to be associated with the Catholic Church over the years. Most of the time, they are merely regurgitating the same message they have heard over and over again, from the usual drones. So people following these leaders should use common sense before they take everything they say on board. We all love our religions but we also accept that very few people confess to their sins in public. So we need to find a way of protecting most especially the silent sinners because they may turn out to be useful some day.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Healthcare should be a ‘Right’ to all to reduce Social inequality
01 Oct 2010 10 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, Africa, Economics, health, Politics, social issues
Dear friends,
The news that most of the parts of the Busoga region in Eastern Ugandan are now infested with jiggers is mind blowing and embarrassing to all of us considering that Busoga has been voting President Museveni and NRM in big numbers since 1996. For those who don’t understand what jiggers are, it’s a special pathological condition, caused by fleas of the genus Tunga. A jigger is also called chigoe. A jigger often attacks the feet or any exposed part of the human body, and when it burrows beneath the skin, it produces great irritation. When the female is allowed to remain and breed, troublesome sores result, which are sometimes dangerous. Most people in the developed nations know a jigger as a bartending tool used to measure liquor not as a dangerous insect as it is in Africa and Asia.
Now, as someone who partly grew up at a small village called Kisega( Kangulumira in Bugerere), I saw on a regular basis how jiggers affected people and what a lack of healthcare does to people. The next two major hospitals from Kisega are a lot of miles away at Nagalama and Kayunga towns. Health centers in the area are too ill-equipped to handle major health problems. As such I think health care should be designated as a special ”right” to everyone in Uganda, and probably the whole of Africa.I’m saying that heath care should be as much a right as life, liberty, and happiness because I don’t believe that only people with money should have X number of hours of a Doctor’s time available. Health care should be accessed too by people who can’t afford life-saving treatment because their lives are not worth less than those with a lot of money. Why should health care be any different from police, fire or military protection? Would one want one’s house to burn down because the neighbor paid for fire protection and one did not? Everybody needs a doctor at some time, just as everybody needs roads and schools and fire protection. These are things that only a government can supply to the people they represent.
Yes, I acknowledge that none of those things magically appear just because I say people have a right to them. No one has an unconstrained “right” to as much medical care as they think they need, just as no one has a right to a private public-funded tutor for their kid or a right to have a personal fire truck and firefighter always parked outside their home. But I think the government needs to find a way to make sure that the less privileged can access medical care as the wealthy ones. The picture in the Monitor Newspaper of the woman struggling to feed her kid when they are both suffering from jiggers is so upsetting, yet most of these conditions are treatable and preventable. As UK epidemiologists, Professor Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett also said in their book entitled’ The Spirit level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone’, social inequality is one of the causes of the poor health due to a big gap between the poor and the rich. As such, I think health care should be as much as a right as like free speech and like free speech has limits but in general is unrestricted. Cosmetic surgery, for example, might in general not be considered health care. If one wants to look 20 years younger it’s on one’s dime.
A feet affected with Jiggers(image sent by Otto Patrick)
Historically, National health care programs were first instituted by Otto von Bismarck in imperial Germany in 1883 before it later spread to the rest of Europe. In USA, former president, Harry Truman, proposed it to the Congress following World War 11, before it was defeated by a coalition led by American Medical Association. In his message to Congress on Nov. 19, 1945, Truman asked members to support his Economic Bill of Rights which included the “right to adequate.
For the meantime, I advice people in Busoga to put on Leather or rubber shoes which could shod their feet from jiggers at least as we wait for the government to address some of the social inequalities in our society. Jiggers will always be a problems as long there is still a big gap between the poor and rich.
Byebyo Ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
UNCIRCUMCISED MEN ‘TEBAMALAKO’
09 Jul 2009 1 Comment
Kampala international hospital
Dear readers,
There is a lot of research I have read around this topic and I think I understand where some people are coming from who are against circumcission. However, I’m gonna take the side I would like to sell to the Uganda public which is: men should go for circumcision or take their baby boys for circumcision as soon as possible.
It’s true that circumcision is a painful experience as it was done to me when I was above the baby stage. They deceived me that they were taking me to Kampala city for a ride and I woke up in Kawolo hospital. I think I remember this pain because I was a bit older when it was done but I don’t think babies do remember this pain when they grow up. Yes, when there are still babies or infants, they feel and express this pain in stereotypic ways involving vocalization, facial expression, body movements and autonomic activity but they later become OK and smile normally. The wound would heal normally without undue bleeding or infection, and that the outcome will be just a ‘normal circumcised penis’.
One Ugandan called Mulindwa Edward asked:‘………… Abbey Ssemuwemba must be thrown out the window for he claims that circumcising men does have an effect on their sexual enjoyment. How does Abey make this conclusion when he has never experienced the side of being uncircumcised?’’
One does not need to be circumcised or uncircumcised first to know the advantages or disadvantages of circumcision. Let me elaborate: when a man has got that foreskin still intact on their penis, he feels greater sexual sensation during sex due to the greater sensitivity of the protected glans, and that the foreskin is an erogenous zone in itself. A foreskin and its full complement of ‘neuroreceptors’ (as scientists call them) can easily make the uncircumcised man to come or ejaculate very fast thus leaving a woman in limbo. This is the time women start thinking: ‘Oh, AMALIDE BISELA BYANGE’ meaning the man has literally wasted her time. The uncircumcised feel a little bit too much more than the uncircumicsed men and this is where the problem comes from.
Since circumcised men have no feeling in their foreskin (in fact, no foreskin at all), the only form of stimulation comes in the form of pressure on the head and the shaft of the penis, and in the orgasm itself. This helps the uncircumcised to prolong during love making and thus helping the women to enjoy the whole game for longer. Forget about Mirima’s explanation about styles and stuff like that because those are just what we call ‘icing on the cake’ or ‘having a soda while eating at the same time’.
Lastly, uncircumcised men often experience pain during their primary sexual act while circumcised males do not. This is because the ‘frenulum’ is removed, along with the foreskin, during the circumcision operation. If you may allow me to become a biology teacher for a second,…… the uncircumcised penis contains a certain piece of skin called the frenulum – that is attached to both the prepuce and the glans of the penis. The frenulum serves the same purpose as the hymen in virgin girls/women, i.e. as a barrier to unwanted or premature sexual activity. During the first act of intercourse (or masturbation), the frenulum is torn from the mucous membrane that keeps it in place, a change that subsequently allows the foreskin to be fully retracted over the entire ‘head’ of the penis. Similarly, for women the hymen is broken during the first sexual act (though, of course, it could also be broken for reasons completely unrelated to sexual activity).
So tell me people: what is wrong with a baby boy feeling that pain when they get circumcised that will allow them to satisfy their future partners or wives and also save them from that pain when they have their first sexual experience, obviously apart from other advantages known by everybody
Just think about it
Abbey
Both homosexuality and prostitution should both be illegal
23 May 2009 1 Comment
Dear Ugandans,
My feeling is that both homosexuality and prostitution should both be illegal. Legalising prostitution will make our children vulnerable to this immoral behaviour thus leading to higher child prostitution in the country. Right now, sex with a child is legally rape and assault but the old men abusing kids will start quoting legal child prostitution as their defence once caught in the act. Laws like legal prostitution make children not to be treated differently than adult citizens yet they lack the ability to fully comprehend their actions.
Some people argue that prohibition of prostitution will never work, wastes untold billions of our money, and actually makes it more dangerous by driving it underground but I think such voices simply lack the moral backbone. I don’t care if the war on prostitution is not winnable. Sometimes man has to take a moral stance. There is certain honour in fighting for what is right, even if the fight is in vain. Such voices seem to approach all human issues from the purely economical position. They don’t care if doing prostitution is moral or not, they are only concerned with the economical ramifications.
I’m also of the view that prostitution is a form of slavery. I don’t like the idea of the prostitution’s tendency to promote the idea of people as property. Remember that we had slavery in this country up several years ago? It was considered legal among the big nations like USA and Great Britain, and many considered it moral, but we advanced as a society and the whole world came to accept that slavery was immoral and unacceptable. We looked at what is right as to the rights of people.
In addition, prostitution exploits women, hurts families and destroys marriages, and the government should not add further credibility to legalized sex selling. I don’t think it is OK for a pimp to charge a prostitute for use of a street corner if prostitution is legal.
With legal prostitution, I would warrant a bet that the victim is the prostitute herself as she loses self-esteem. A prostitute puts herself at risk to please people. The fact is that legal abortion, legal prostitution, and the defence of both make women toys, playthings. Well, as far as I know, women don’t like it much either.
Prostitution is already legal in Canada but actually soliciting sex is illegal. In Germany, Netherlands, Brazil and Nevada (USA) prostitution is legal but they have not benefitted much from legalising it apart from creating more problems. Even those states in USA that have legalised it have found it hard to protect people who commit these crimes in other states where it is not legalised. For instance, if a convicted prostitute fled Utah and sought refuge in Nevada to escape imprisonment, Nevada is bound to return the prostitute to Utah even though prostitution is legal under the laws of Nevada.
I don’t know whether Uganda is a signatory to the so-called UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) because this treaty is causing a lot of immoral problems in several countries. For instance, in 2002 the CEDAW Committee directed China to legalize prostitution even though prostitution is condemned in the convention. The committee says prostitution would be OK because it is often a result of poverty and economic deprivation. This is yet another U.N. treaty that meddles in personal matters that are none of its business. CEDAW criticizes Ireland for the influence of the Catholic Church in society and the state, in large part because of the church’s opposition to abortion. The committee also directed Ireland to legalize abortion. Kyrgyzstan is criticized for restrictions on lesbianism. I have now got a feeling that organisations or individuals promoting homosexuality in Uganda are partly being funded by CEDAW. Please if we are not yet members of CEDAW, stay away from it completely because it will tell us to legalise abortion, prostitution and homosexuality.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
DON’T LEGALISE PROSTITUTION
21 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
I totally agree with arguments by ministers James Kinobe (Youth) and Nsaba Buturo (Integrity) that legalising and decriminalising the sex industry will be a step in the wrong direction. It will lead to the existence of pimps and traffickers since it (legalisation)would convert brothels, sex clubs, massage parlours and other sites into legitimate venues for commercial sex.
Ordinarily, it looks like legalisation of prostitution means dignifying and professionalising the women in prostitution. However, dignifying prostitution as work does not dignify the women; it simply dignifies the sex industry.
Some people may not realise that decriminalisation, for example, means decriminalisation of the whole sex industry — not just women.
Lawmakers should think through the consequences of legalising pimps as legitimate sex entrepreneurs or third party businessmen, and the fact that men who buy women for sexual activity will be accepted as legitimate consumers of sex.
Legalised prostitution is a root cause of sex trafficking. In January 2002, prostitution in Germany was fully established as a legitimate job. Promotion of prostitution, pimping and brothels are now legal there.
As early as 1993, after the first steps towards legalisation had been taken, it was recognised that 75 per cent of the women in Germany’s prostitution industry were foreigners; from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and South America.
The said legalisation leads to expansion of the sex industry. For example, in the State of Victoria, Australia, there was massive expansion of the sex industry.
From 40 legal brothels in Victoria in 1989, the number jumped 94 tin 1999, along with 84 escort services. There has also been a proliferation of other forms of sexual exploitation, such as tabletop dancing, bondage and discipline centres, peep shows, phone sex, and pornography. Legalisation will also increase clandestine street prostitution, contrary to the intended objective.
Many women would do not want to register and undergo health checks, as required by law in most countries. Therefore, legalislation tends to drive them into street prostitution.
The Netherlands
And many women choose street prostitution because they want to avoid being controlled and exploited by the new sex “businessmen.” In addition, legalised prostitution will increase child prostitution in Uganda.
One of the arguments for legalising prostitution in the Netherlands was that it would end child prostitution. But in contrast, it increased dramatically during the 1990s.
The Amsterdam based ChildRight organisation estimated that the number shot from 4,000 in 1996 to 15,000 in 2001. The group estimated that 5,000 of the said children were from other countries, especially Nigeria.
Abuse: Legalisation of prostitution does not protect the women. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW) has made two major studies on sex trafficking and prostitution, interviewing almost 200 victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
In these studies, women indicated that prostitution establishments did little to protect them, regardless of whether they were in legal or illegal establishments. “The only time they protect anyone is to protect the customers.”
Legalisation only enhances the demand for prostitution. It boosts the motivation of men to buy women for sex in a much wider and more permissible range of socially acceptable settings. Wrong signal: It is also worthy pointing out that the said legalisation sends a message to new generations of boys and men that women are sexual commodities — and that prostitution is harmless fun.
Also, it does not promote women’s health. Legalised prostitution, which mandates health checks and certification only for women — but not for clients — is blatantly discriminatory. “Women only” health checks make no public health sense because monitoring prostituted women does not protect them from HIV/Aids or other sexually transmitted diseases since male “clients” do transmit these diseases to the women.
I would also like to submit that the said legalisation will be an embarrassment to a country that has led the fight against HIV/Aids. Furthermore, it will not enhance women’s choice.
The distinction between forced and voluntary prostitution is precisely what the sex industry is promoting. Women who bring charges against pimps and perpetrators will bear the burden of proving that they were “forced.” How will marginalized women ever be able to prove coercion?
Deceiving: Women in prostitution must continually lie about their lives, their bodies, and their sexual responses. Lying is part of the job definition when the customer asks, “did you enjoy it?” The very edifice of prostitution is built on the lie that “women like it.” Evidence has also shown that women in systems of prostitution do not want the sex industry legalised or decriminalised.
In a 5-country study on sex trafficking done by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and funded by the Ford Foundation, most of the 146 women interviewed said prostitution should not be legalised and deemed legitimate work.
Abdication
They warned it would create more risks and harm for women from already violent customers and pimps. In conclusion, if the government legalises prostitution, it will benefit economically in the sex industry. Consequently, this will increase its dependence on the sex sector.
If women in prostitution are counted as workers, pimps as businessmen, and buyers as consumers of sexual services, thus legitimating the entire sex industry as an economic sector, then the government can abdicate responsibility for making decent and sustainable employment available to women.
IQ has got nothing to do with skin colour
29 Nov 2008 15 Comments
in Africa, health, science Tags: Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Dear folks,
I don’t know how some people arrive at the conclusion that white people have got higher Intelligence Quotient, or IQ than black people and I think that they are wrong. These are the kind of statements that are meant to pull down the little confidence some black people have got when faced with a situation of competing with a white person. In African context, it has got to do with our colonial history where a white man was always looked at as superior. However, differences in IQ have got nothing to do with race or colour. I’m going to be forced to go a little bit scientific and I hope readers do not get bored by this. There are possibly two explanations for this according to scientists and psychologists.
The way the brain is formed and its relationship with intelligence is so puzzling even to a lay man like me but one of the most pressing issues facing the field of psychology is that of individual differences in intelligence. People’s IQs are relatively stable over their lifetime, but this does not mean that their intellectual performance does not change. Some people’s IQ grows with age while others it reduces by age. That’s why you find people who were not that intelligent while in high school but grow out of it and end up even becoming presidents of nations or very important people. For instance, there are reports that President Yoweri Museveni was an average student while in school but he has turned out to be the best political strategist Uganda has ever had such that his enemies have found it hard to get him out of power. Former president, Milton Obote, was a school dropout, who actually died without any degree, but his intelligence is rated high among some people especially UPC supporters.
The view that white people are more intelligent than black people is wrongly based on the inheriting view of genes which is simply inconclusive and which has got nothing to do with race. For example, identical twins tend to have similar IQs, even when the twins are brought up in different environments. Moreover, adopted children tend to have IQs that are more similar to those of their biological parents than to those of their adoptive parents. These findings suggest that it is not children’s upbringing but rather their genes that determines their IQ. Attempts at improving the IQ of disadvantaged children through environmental intervention programs have been relatively unsuccessful. So, this argument stresses that IQ has got nothing to do with environment as long as the biological parents have higher IQ; it is usually transferred to their children.
However, it should be stressed that the twins with good genes can either be black or white. There is no gene that has got monopoly over the other because of race. In view of such findings, the development of intelligence is governed by some genetic program and is relatively immune to differences in environmental circumstances, at least within the range that most children experience.
Again when we look at the research understanding of how the brain develops and processes information, Scientists believes that neural connections are critical for the meaningful processing of information. This suggests that different neural connections are required for different abilities. Studies of brain development have shown that these neural connections are relatively undifferentiated when a child is born and that they then become progressively more elaborate over childhood until maturity. There is no difference in the neurons found in either a black child or a white one. We are all the same. Those who look at black kids as less intelligent are doing it out of ignorance.
Nevertheless, there are those who possibly explain a difference in intelligence by looking at the environment. Some Scientists have explained the difference in IQ relating it to the environment. Many studies have shown that neural connections develop and change in response to environmental stimulation. This capacity of the neural connections to adapt has often been referred to as neural plasticity. For example, research has shown that if kittens are reared in a visual environment in which they are exposed only to vertical lines, in later life the only visual stimuli they will be able to recognize are vertical lines. If they are exposed only to spots of light during infancy, they will be able to see only spots of light in later life. These findings suggest that environmental stimulation plays a crucial role in determining the arrangement of a child’s neural connections and, hence, how the child processes information. So it can be argued that most Africans (white and black) are probably less intelligent because of the environment around them but this does not mean that there were born this way. If this is improved, then Africa can have people with higher IQs. It has got nothing to do with race at all. For instance, Obama or Nelson Mandela may be considered intelligent basically because of either of the above explanations but race has got nothing to do with it.
Imagine a child whose brain is very good at adapting neural connections to the environment. He or she would be able to develop the appropriate connections to process many kinds of information more effectively than other children of the same age, and would appear to be bright or gifted. In contrast, consider a child whose brain is unable to adapt to the environment and who is unable to develop the neural connections necessary to understand many things experienced in the environment. That child would remain childlike as a result of poorly developed neural circuits. I don’t know whether the environmental factor mentioned here includes nutritional explanation because how does one explain better fed kids in the western countries who come across as less intelligent than those in impoverished societies. A black child born and bred in Europe may turn out to be less intelligent than one raised in Africa with or without the environmental factor.
To be honest with you, when one looks at this area of research, you come to the conclusion that Black people are as intelligent as white people but other factors explain why they are in the bottom pit of success. It has got nothing to do with specifically their colour. Black people should not allow anyone to make them feel like there are less intelligent than other races.
I also disagree with some people when they say that by the time Congo becomes the present Denmark, Denmark would be on another planet. There is no time frame when it comes to economic development. China was below Denmark in terms of economic development 20 years ago but not anymore. If Africa gets its grips together and probably get rid of the currently less intelligent and selfish African leaders, things will be better in Africa. Africa will be a force to be reckoned with on the international stage if the politics on the continent can be sorted out as soon as possible.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom
Tear Gas In Uganda
21 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in health
After watching a song by one Ugandan musician (Mega dee) campaigning against the so called ‘tear gas’, I felt it is high time to add my voice to this menace to the society.Some body should talk to the police boss in Uganda, Gen. Kayihura about this. Ugandans should be allowed to express their frustrations through demonstrations without any hindrance.
C.S spray commonly called tear gas was first synthesized by Corson and Staughton in 1928, hence the initials C.S. Ugandans are fed up with tear gas as the chemicals in tear gas irritate the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract and they also activate the lachrymal glands.
C.S spray used by the police forces contain a 5% solution of C.S in a solvent of Meythl Isobutyl Ketone, this solvent is flammable. Nitrogen is used as the propellant. Meythl Isobutyl Ketone is potentially irritating to the eyes and on contact with the skin may cause a tingling sensation, irritation,erythema, drying and flaking and in severe cases blistering. The effects of the propellant and the solvent may last for up to 8 hours and persist for anything up to a week.
If water comes into contact with clothing contaminated with tear gas, it may cause the gas to evaporate further and may affect the skin. That is why i’m not surprised that the leader of the FDC,Dr.Kiiza Besigye, has got red eyes most of the time. This may be a combination of the tear gas and water effects.The police in Uganda should go easy on tear gas as some times they just spread it carelessly whenever there is a demonstration in the city. This is a dangerous substance which should be less used.
If Ugandans are demonstrating against something worth it like Mabila, they should be given demarcated areas to demonstrate instead of tear- gassing them unnecessary. Why is there tear gas every time there is demonstration in Kampala? We should encourage Ugandans to express their disagreements and frustrations against the government using these means instead of driving
them to other expensive means. We should not ban people who wish to demonstrate b’se it is their constitutional right and Gen Kayihula as a lawyer, he should know this very well. Recently, we saw a picture of ‘Nkoba zambogo’ Men in the Bukedde with wounds on their heads because of their
demonstrations against Balalo in Kiboga, and it was really touching. What is going on?
Traditional or herbal medicine in Uganda
21 Nov 2008 4 Comments
I’m not an expert in herbal medicine but I believe it works perfectly well. I agree that it needs to be run along with conventional medicine. Herbs have been an important source of medicine for thousands of years. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 80 per cent of people still rely on herbal remedies for their health care. And there are reasons for this, namely, the high cost of drugs in clinics and pharmacies, drug resistance which often lead to treatment failure, prolong and expensive treatment of some chronic diseases which the general population cannot afford. Has anyone seen those lines at Mulago referral hospital in Uganda? Not everyone can afford to take their wife and kids for treatment at Kampala International hospital or any of the private hospitals in Uganda such that If herbal medicine was not there, so many Ugandans will be dead by now.
In South Africa, traditional herbs have long been used to treat various pain or inflammation-related symptoms. South Africa has the richest plant biodiversity in the world, many of which are medicinally useful .They also use herbs to treat livestock diseases. I don’t know whether the ‘balalo’ in Uganda also use it too. Some of the plants are employed to treat diabetes, tumours, stomach pain, rheumatism and many other indications.
Personally, I love herbs because of the wide variety of conditions that is said to be treatable with a single plant or group of plants. The reasons why some remedies from plants are used for so many diseases could be that they affect a common (denominator) factor responsible for the diseases and disorders. That’s one of the reasons why I love herbs so much. You take them for cough but you end up treating 9 diseases hidden in your system as well. That is fantastic, man. Whenever I visit Kampala, I treat my malaria with that sour plant called aloe-Vera. I hear it treats so many diseases and it makes me feel good.
People also worry about bacterial infection that comes out of mixing herbs or saliva used by herbalists. Honestly, in the UK here I see people kissing every day on the cheeks or mouth-mouth almost every second. So why should anybody worry about a bacteria from a certain ‘jaja’ or ‘grandma’ spitting saliva while preparing herbs. Bacteria are everywhere and our bodies normally find a way of dealing with them. In any case, we all know that the immune system is modified by diet, pharmacological agents, and naturally occurring food chemicals, such as vitamins and flavonoids.
Herbal Plants contain a wide variety of natural compounds mainly plant secondary compounds. Among the secondary compounds are the flavonoids. Flavonoids are among the most common constituents in plants. They are present in high concentrations in flowers, seeds, leaves, herbs, fruits, stems, bulbs, tea, wine, vegetables and other food sources. So taking ‘traditional mixtures’ as some people call them actually treats the disease. That’s why we want the government to put herbalists into some form of training like the Chinese have done to improve in the grey areas which are worrying people.
The Department of Botany at Makerere University has done a lot of research around this area which one may one find very useful to read. They did a study between January 2000 and September 2003 to document medicinal plants used to treat fungal and bacterial infections in health care in and around Queen Elizabeth Biosphere Reserve in Bushenyi and Kasese districts in western Uganda. They also did another one in August 2007.
Abbey.Kibirige Semuwemba
