One in four people in Gulu district in northern Uganda suffer from mental illness as a result of alcohol abuse, depression and anxiety due to effects of the 22 years old war that displaced 2 million people from their homes, a study reveals.

The study  that was done by the university of Gulu between 1998 – 2008 reveals that between 16,000 – 17,000 people attempted suicide, a figure much higher than 99 – 100,000 international rating.

Lack of financial commitment by the government is to blame for the high number of infection and deaths as a result of cancer related ailments in Uganda.

“No money is allocated to cancer research management despite the increase in cancer cases in the country. Instead the burden of caring for cancer patients has been shifted to the family and individuals,” Dr. Jackson Orem, Head of cancer Institute at Mulago Referral hospital in Kampala says.

While doctors and HIV experts have been pleading with HIV positive partners to use a condom and other forms of contraceptives when having unprotected sex, the message seems not to be making major inroads.

Two recent studies done in the country indicate that HIV positive women are not using condoms or any other form of contraceptive when having sex either with their HIV positive or negative partners.

The demand for organic foods seems to be on an upward trend in the city with new restaurants popping up and Kenyans of middle class drifting towards consumption of these foodstuffs.

A spot-check in the city by the AWC found supermarkets now stocking organic groceries more than ever before, while restaurants specializing in these foods enjoying increasing popularity.

Senior doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital are spending more quality time with well-paying patients in their private clinics, where they make triple what they earn on government salary, a situation that has left poor patients coming through the public at a loss.

Lack of necessary capacity in African countries to convert relevant new scientific knowledge into practices that could improve the people’s welfare and the general development is to blame for the increased number of poor people in the continent.

“The weak institutional linkages that often lead to undue and ill thought out over reliance on international donor funding is partly to blame for the miseries in most African countries,” Dr. Rebecca Hanlin, Development and policy expert from the Open University, Britain says.

Dr. Hanlin observes that Africa can develop faster once the governments starts allocating reasonable funds to science and innovation development adding that annual budgetary under funding by the African governments only helps drag the continent backward.

Worried by the soaring cases of people presenting to health facilities with diseases that cause excruciating pain such cancers and HIV/AIDS, medical practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa now want palliative care given the prominence it deserves.

They are pushing for a comprehensive policy on Palliative Care to reduce the disease burden, particularly on the poor.

For the first time, the topic was discussed during last week’s Special Session at the 46th annual meeting of Ministers of Health from Eastern and Southern Africa held in Seychelles.

Of the funds given for Round 2 more than three years ago, over US$57 million (Ksh 3.6 billion) is yet to be spend in the phase 2 of the round. Of these, US$ 17 million is supposed to buy antiretroviral drugs, with the rest going to strengthening structures and reporting systems. The Global Fund has warned that this money will be returned and future funding stopped if it is not used by the end of November.

Journalists who covered and were psychologically affected by last year’s post election violence are now going to benefit from a trauma counseling programme that was launched last week.

Organized by the Kenya Association of Photographers, Illustrators and Designers (KAPIDE) and Kenya Correspondents’ Association (KCA) and funded by International Media Support (IMS), the programme will provide trauma counseling to a total of 150 journalists.

Caused by tse tse flies and rated as one of the neglected tropical ailments in the developing world, the disease is already spreading to new areas of Uganda where it was once eradicated.