An interim report on the Balamu progress was published in the German medical journal Nieren- und Hochdruckkrankheiten (eng: Kidney Diseases and Hypertension) titled Nephrology and Global Health? An interim report on the development of patient care in rural Uganda. In this article, members of the Balamu Team together with Prof. Detlev Ganten point out the necessity of including nephrology treatment and workforce development more strongly in global health interventions.
NCDs continue to remain a neglected area in global health. This is particularly an issue in rural areas of low-middle-income countries, which often only have limited access to resources and human capacities. The aim of this publication is to shine a light on the differences within treatment opportunities in high-income countries and low-middle-income countries such as Uganda.
By pointing out the low numbers of nephrologists in Uganda, we describe discrepancies in the global nephrology workforce. In Uganda, currently only eleven nephrologists are registered for a population of nearly 45 million. This is an incredible small amount compared to high-income countries such as the US or Germany. In addition, we summarize our accomplishments from the past five years by describing our aim of building a longitudinal cohort to assess NCD disease burden in rural Uganda. Finally, we provide evidence on the advantages of employing community health workers to reach even the remotest of community members.
You can find the full publication here.