By Susan Nakayiza
Namata, a resident of Bwaise and a mother of two (not real names of the characters or places) rears a few chickens at home. Namata has big healthy looking chicken and when asked what her secret is? She smiles and says ‘The panadol I give my chicken makes them grow big and healthy.’ Does this unfortunate use of human medicines/drugs in animals shock you? Unfortunately, this is the norm lately in every part of Uganda. In many parts of Uganda, mothers often go to the drug shop and buy one strip of amoxicillin at 1000 UGX shillings and share it among the entire family members. This obvious abuse of medicines has brought with it life threatening consequences. We have over-exposed the germs to these medicines they have now learnt to survive in the presence of these medicines that were once used to kill them. These germs have turned into superbugs that are hard to kill and require very expensive and often rare medicines.
50 % of superbugs in Uganda can no longer be killed by commonly available medicines and many people are dying in clinics because of them. Uganda has set up a superbug control committee to fight superbugs and to create a library of all superbugs found in Uganda.
Five entities sit on this superbug control committee, and they include:
- The Ministry of Health: Creates and teaches local communities on how to use drugs correctly and how to maintain good sanitation to prevent infections from superbugs
- The Ministry of Agriculture: Teaches farmers how to maintain good sanitation on their farms to prevent superbugs and diseases
- The National Environmental Authority (NEMA): Makes sure industries and hospitals do not pour wastes containing superbugs into our drinking water sources
- Universities and other educational institutions: Train animal and human doctors to properly check sick people and give them the right medicines that can work on them in the shortest period
- The National Drug Authority: Ensures that only good drugs are brought into the country and controls how pharmacists give out drugs to people