April_eMagazine Volume 40
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OUR PEOPLE,<br />
OUR MISSION<br />
Global Health<br />
<strong>eMagazine</strong><br />
<strong>April</strong> 2022<br />
Watch this video!!<br />
Bani Adam by Saadi Shirazi<br />
A Ugandan Student’s Education in the Foil of the<br />
COVID-19 Pandemic<br />
Part 2/2<br />
Written by Abraham Ddungu Matovu<br />
Medical Student, MakCHS<br />
All seemed to be returning to normal until June 2021 in my third<br />
year of medical school when Uganda experienced the second<br />
wave of COVID-19, forcing the president to issue yet another<br />
nationwide lockdown similar to the one we had stomached the<br />
previous year. I was still filled with the excitement of getting an<br />
elective placement abroad at Cambridge University, UK but this<br />
meant I had to pause and wait on the return of normalcy.<br />
This lockdown further slowed academic progress, pushing completion of my medical school<br />
education to a later date than initially planned. In the second lockdown I volunteered to help<br />
health workers in Kampala District by encouraging people to come for COVID-19 vaccination. The<br />
Ugandan government had acquired AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac and Moderna<br />
vaccines. We also experienced a massive usage of herbal drugs by Ugandans in the plight of the<br />
looming pandemic. This particular lockdown was shorter than the first one and by August 2021 we<br />
were allowed to return to university to continue with our studies.<br />
Highlights<br />
Perspectives<br />
Behind the Scenes<br />
Announcements<br />
Spotlight<br />
Reflections<br />
Nursing Division<br />
SARS COV-2 Pandemic<br />
and Us<br />
As the saying goes that tough times don’t last but tough people do, I was able to successfully wade<br />
my way through the third year of medical school amidst a blended learning experience of physical<br />
and online studies. In December 2021, I was placed in Kiryandongo District, Uganda with eight other<br />
medical students for Community Based Education and Research Studies (COBERS) placement, an<br />
initiative designed by Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) to bridge to the<br />
gap between urban and rural communities in accessing healthcare services. This is because more<br />
than 80% of the population in Uganda lives in rural areas yet 80% of the nation’s doctors live in the<br />
capital city of Kampala. As part of the curriculum, medical students in small grounds are expected to<br />
train and live in a rural community where they diagnose health challenges and work with the people<br />
to design a solution. The COBERS site, located all over Uganda, is pre-determined at MakCHS.<br />
During the COBERS placement in Kisorosoro village, Kiryadongo District located Northwest of<br />
Kampala, western Uganda, we conducted a community diagnosis where we were able to assess<br />
the impact of the pandemic on the local community while helping recommend potential solutions<br />
to overcome these challenges. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many deaths, loss<br />
of jobs resulting in inability to afford school tuition, and an increase in school dropouts especially<br />
among teenage girls in Uganda. However, I am still positive about the recovery of our economy and<br />
improvement in disease surveillance all over the world to prevent such pandemics from happening<br />
again.<br />
Clinical Case Report<br />
A New Column<br />
Global Health and the Arts<br />
Articles of the Month<br />
Videos of the Month<br />
Calendar<br />
Resources<br />
20<br />
Reflections continued on next page >>