Hospital trash pile being burned only yards from the main building of the hospital.
If you are a citizen of America, you have a high chance of seeing that doctor. In the United States there are 2.67 doctors per 1000 people. In Uganda there are 0.12 doctors per 1000 people. San Marino, a tiny landlocked country in Italy of 32,000 people, has 47 doctors per 1000 people. San Marino has no one living with HIV/AIDS, no major infectious diseases, no water sanitation issues and a life expectancy of 83 while only using 7.1 percent of the countries income on health expenditures.
Uganda has...well, let's compare San Marino to the United States first.
The United States has 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS, no major infectious diseases, 33.9 percent of the population is obese, mild water sanitation issues with 1 percent of the population and a life expectancy of 78 while using 16.2 percent of the countries income on health expenditures.
Now Uganda. Uganda also has 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS. There is a very high risk of infectious diseases such as malaria, plague, African sleeping sickness, rabies, hepatitis A and typhoid fever. Approximately 33 percent of the population lives without access to clean drinking water with an average of 6.7 children born per woman in the country. The country spends 8.2 percent of its income on health for citizens, who are only expected to live until age 53.
Pediatric Ward at Kawolo Hospital in Lugazi. Patients' families hang clothes and linens to dry in the sun.
After doing the calculations, I found out that there is approximately one doctor per 8,333 people in Uganda. The population is approximately 34.7 million thus meaning there are 4,164 doctors in the entire country of Uganda.
During the Fall 2010 semester at Brigham Young University-Idaho there were 14,944 students enrolled. There were approximately 3.6 times more students at BYU-Idaho then there are doctors in Uganda.
Uganda currently has five medical universities with two more planned to open in 2012 and 2015. Medicine is not seen as a prestigious profession. Doctors and nurses are underpaid, mistreated and occasionally corrupt.
At the Kawolo Hospital in Lugazi, Uganda there were two doctors, about seven clinicians and less than 40 nurses. One doctor was the medical director of the hospital as well, so I don't believe he practiced much medicine.
Maternity Wing/NICU at Kawolo Hospital
At Methodist Hospital in Sacramento, California, it is estimated that there are 75 doctors and around 300 nurses. They are licensed for 169 beds.
Karl Marx, the father of Socialism, argued about the unequal distribution of resources and the need to properly distribute. This same principle should be applied to the distribution of doctors.
If there are numerous infectious diseases running rampant in a country that only has one doctor for every 8,333 people, how is anyone expecting these diseases to be eradicated? Should we give up on these people and their potential because there isn't a way for them to help themselves?
Doctors Without Borders is an amazing organization devoted to providing the medical attention that is needed throughout the world. Volunteer doctors and nurses travel to over 60 countries to provide life-sustaining assistance to those threatened by violence, neglect or catastrophe.
Hand washing station, reserve water tanks, tomorrow's dinner roaming around.
With Uganda building two more medical universities in their country, hopefully those graduates will fight in Uganda to end the medical crisis that they face. It will be those devoted Ugandan men and women who will finally bring the revolution to Uganda ... finally ending the poverty that has plagued them for generations.
