Dr. Litoff Returns from Humanitarian
Delegation to Uganda
Dear Friends, Family and Colleagues,
My recent trip to Uganda was a moving, life-changing experience. Thank you
for making it possible.
The purpose of the trip was to work with the people of Uganda directly and
to establish a human connection in order to understand their experience with
the AIDS pandemic. We met many talented and dedicated locals who help their
people fight poverty and disease. The most amazing thing we found was that
the healthcare workers, volunteers, and patients are full of hope for the future
in spite of the many challenges they face. They warmly received us and they
were glad that we had come.
I worked in the village health center for a week. The center is staffed by
a nurse-midwife named Esther. We saw patients together. I showed her some physical
diagnosis techniques such as the tilt test to estimate fluid status on patients
with volume depletion. Most of the patients had malaria, a common disease in
Uganda, which I rarely see in Chicago. I also saw some patients which Esther
didn’t know how to manage, such as a patient with unexplained cervical
lymphadenopathy for which we referred for biopsy to rule out tuberculosis and
another with a breast cyst, we sent to the hospital in town.
Another goal of the trip is to let people here in the United States know
of both the problems and successes the people of Uganda have experienced
in fighting
HIV/AIDS. For example, through Ugandan-run organizations like the AIDS Information
Center and The AIDS Service Organization (TASO), nearly half of the AIDS
patients in Uganda will be on antiretroviral drugs, by the end of 2005.
The TASO center
in Mbale had opened just a month before our visit and was funded in part
by the United States Government.
The United States as one of the richest countries in the world has a responsibility
to help the developing world fight the AIDS pandemic. We need to increase
help for organizations like TASO in Sub-Saharan Africa. You can help. Please
visit
these internet sites to learn more.
Global AIDS Alliance http://www,globalaidsalliance.org provides education,
action items and information about volunteer opportunities.
UNAIDS updated AIDS information http://www.unaids.org
The AIDS Support Organization http://www.tasouganda.org
DATA: Debt AIDS Trade Africa http://www.data.org