Mobile Health Access and Utilisation in Uganda: Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions of Health and Veterinary Workers.

Background: Despite its strong growth in many parts of the world, mobile health access is still limited in low- and middle-income countries. Among the many factors restricting implementation are the lack of information security, insufficient evidence base, low sensitization, and user acceptance. Limited evidence has been obtained on current practices, perceptions, and user acceptability in such settings. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and perceptions on mobile health use among health workers and veterinary officers in Uganda. Materials and Methods: A cross-section study was carried out, targeting health practitioners in both hospitals and veterinary laboratories/clinics. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Western representative regions. Interviews with selected health workers were also conducted as well as a focused group discussion. Results: Of the 120 health practitioners that were targeted, a total of 80 health workers and 7 veterinary practitioners participated in the study of which 46% were men and 54% women. Majority of the health workers had encountered m-health but had never used it, whereas the 15 practitioners who had used it before the survey did not use it for disease diagnosis in hospitals but used it for ordering medicine online, for patient consultations with the doctors, result interpretation, tracking women menstrual cycles, tuberculosis assessment. Discussion and Conclusion: Participants expressed significant interest in mobile health as it addresses key challenges including challenges with management of patient data, and long patient queues, which would ultimately improve service delivery. However, there is some skepticism about access as many rural facilities lack access to smartphones and stable internet.

The role of medical equipment in the spread of nosocomial infections: a cross-sectional study in four tertiary public health facilities in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: With many medical equipment in hospitals coming in direct contact with healthcare workers, patients, technicians, cleaners and sometimes care givers, it is important to pay close attention to their capacity in harboring potentially harmful pathogens. The goal of this study was to assess the role that medical equipment may potentially play in hospital acquired infections in four public health facilities in Uganda. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2017 to January 2018 in four public health facilities in Uganda. Each piece of equipment from the neonatal department, imaging department or operating theatre were swabbed at three distinct points: a location in contact with the patient, a location in contact with the user, and a remote location unlikely to be contacted by either the patient or the user. The swabs were analyzed for bacterial growth using standard microbiological methods. Seventeen bacterial isolates were randomly selected and tested for susceptibility/resistance to common antibiotics. The data collected analyzed in STATA version 14. RESULTS: A total of 192 locations on 65 equipment were swabbed, with 60.4% of these locations testing positive (116/192). Nearly nine of ten equipment (57/65) tested positive for contamination in at least one location, and two out of three equipment (67.7%) tested positive in two or more locations. Of the 116 contaminated locations 52.6% were positive for Bacillus Species, 14.7% were positive for coagulase negative staphylococcus, 12.9% (15/116) were positive for E. coli, while all other bacterial species had a pooled prevalence of 19.8%. Interestingly, 55% of the remote locations were contaminated compared to 66% of the user contacted locations and 60% of the patient contacted locations. Further, 5/17 samples were resistant to at least three of the classes of antibiotics tested including penicillin, glycylcycline, tetracycline, trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole and urinary anti-infectives. CONCLUSION: These results provides strong support for strengthening overall disinfection/sterilization practices around medical equipment use in public health facilities in Uganda. There's also need for further research to make a direct link to the bacterial isolates identified and cases of infections recorded among patients in similar settings.