On 18th March 2020, President Yoweri Museveni addressed the nation over the global pandemic of the coronavirus. During the address, the President issued 15 guidelines and precautionary measures (they have since increased to 33 over the last eight addresses) to forestall the spread of the deadly Covid-19 which included among others; washing hands regularly with water and soap, avoiding crowded places and not moving out when you have cough or flu. It has been three weeks since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Uganda and the president declared a lockdown.
I must confess; in this period, I have upped the frequency with which I call people at home to check on how they are coping with the lock down and how they are keeping safe. Naturally, one would think that it would be me to tutor my village folks on one or two things about safety measures against the pandemic. However, and surprisingly, each time I call and I get the chance to speak to my 80 year old grandmother, she asks me if I am taking care of myself and labours to take me through the basics of safety measures including washing my hands regularly with water and soap, staying away from crowds and moving out of the house only when it is extremely inevitable but even then, I should watch out for any one coughing or sneezing so that I don’t get infected.
I have seen pictures of empty streets from the countryside, implying that citizens in the countryside have religiously complied with the directives and safety measures. I have seen similar pictures of places like Gulu Main market that show sellers and buyers practicing social distancing, washing their hands and adhering to other safety measures. These stories of citizens following the safety measures was recognised by the President in his eighth address to the country on the COVID-19 as part of the reason why the spread of the virus has been largely contained so far.
While we appear to be on course to subdue the virus as a country, we must not forget that there are other preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and malnutrition that need the same social discipline we have exhibited over the last three weeks. Our imminent victory against COVID-19 should teach us one thing; health is very much a personal initiative. With social discipline, we can avert most of the diseases that cause 80 per cent of mortalities in the countryside. Most of these preventive measures for most of the ailments do not attract any cost and do not require any rocket science to manage.
Some of these acts of social discipline would include basic primary health care practices like; having pit latrines and rubbish pits in all homesteads, having hand washing facilities and drying racks, slashing bushy compound and discarding all stagnant waters from the homestead and maintaining personal hygiene. Sleeping under insecticide treated mosquito nets (government distributed over 2million of these about 2 years ago), maintaining cleanliness at community water points and boiling water before drinking.
Despite the fact that these are very basic things; many households in the countryside are still without pit latrines, there are villages that still report open defecation, many water sources are left unattended to and are sometimes accessed by livestock while in some areas, mosquito nets have been turned into ropes for tethering animals, thatching huts or trapping white hunts. No wonder, the Ministry of Health reports that, malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections (RTI) are the top three disease burden and leading cause of mortality especially in the countryside yet these are preventable diseases.
Local governments whose legislative functions allow them to enact ordinances and bylaws must consider revoking such powers to enact legislations that would underpin such preventive measures and aggressively implement the ordinances and by-laws just like they are doing with the presidential directives in the wake of COVID-19 to reduce these preventable deaths.
