Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - A major world expert in Ebola head of Health Management Information System at St. Mary’s Hospital, Lacor Northern Uganda funded by the Piero and Lucille Corti Foundation, Dr Zabulon Yoti, gave a talk in Milan in which he offered his dramatic experience with patients with Ebola and new information on the disease.
Dr Yoti gave a complete picture of activities in the Hospital at Lacor from formation for doctors and nurses to research programmes on AIDS and malaria. He said that more than half the patients are children under 6 and that the most vulnerable subjects, women and children, amount to 80% of the people visited. The principal causes for adult visits are malaria and AIDS. In this northern Ugandan region 11% of the population is affected by AIDS, a much higher percentage than the national average 6%. The hospital runs activities in nearby villages: for example training for midwives, (in Uganda only 20% of mothers give birth in hospital), vaccination and preventative healthcare.
Dr Yoti’s also spoke about his two year’s experience 2000 - 2001 at St. Mary’s Hospital among patients with Ebola. Because he not only treated the patients but also engaged in research to find the causes, he gathered conspicuous useful information material although, Zabulon Yoti said, it will be some years before an effective vaccine is produced.
During the meeting Dominique Corti president Corti Foundation illustrated facts on the situation in Uganda particularly in the northern region of Gulu where St. Mary’s Hospital is situated. In 2004 the hospital admitted a total 35,600 patients and visited 236,800 outpatients; visits for AIDS 11,360; laboratory tests 236,825; major operations 3,878. St. Mary’s Hospital in Lacor and the Corti Foundation are always on the front line: their commitment is a concrete example for the future of Africa. (AP) (14/6/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:29; Parole:400)
