Abstract
In Uganda, the numbers of new coronavirus disease cases have continued to increase slowly since the first case was confirmed. Given that the disease is likely to be holoendemic, the role of primary care (PC) with its features of comprehensiveness, accessibility, coordination and continuity, functioning at the heart of a primary healthcare (PHC) approach, will be important. The elements of PC are applicable in the epidemic preparation, case finding and management, follow-up and post-epidemic phases of responding to this pandemic. This also presents opportunities and lessons for strengthening PHC as well as for reflections on missed opportunities. The effective use of available resources in response to the epidemic should mainly focus on community mobilisation and PHC teams for the prevention, screening, testing and treatment of mild and moderate cases.
Highlights
The first coronavirus patient was confirmed on 21 March 2020
This will flatten the epidemiological curve. The threat is both to the lives and livelihoods of people. This calls into play elements and principles of primary healthcare (PHC) in order to improve and sustain the health of individuals, families and communities
More than 80% of the population live within a 5 km radius from the primary care (PC) health facility
Summary
The first coronavirus patient was confirmed on 21 March 2020. Before that a great deal of anxiety had been experienced in the country, given that all the neighbouring countries already had confirmed cases. Community participation, a principle of PHC, was low, as most of the measures were dictated and enforced by security and military personnel This scared away the potential patients who would have come for testing and created resentment of the prevention measures. The pandemic response should focus more on PHC to address the limitations of screening and testing, innovations on isolation at home, management of mild and moderate cases in the community, as well as active case and contact follow-up. This will protect the scarce hospital-based resources for managing severe and critical cases and promote a peoplecentred response to the epidemic. Private health providers can play a key role in the response to the pandemic and should not be neglected
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