*There are 125 trained obstetricians in all of Uganda. 98 of those are in Kampala, while Mbarara is lucky enough to have 8. Most districts don’t have any at all.
*There is one--yes, one--MRI machine in the entirety of Uganda. It’s located in Kampala.
*The prevalence rate of HIV is ~6.4 percent in the general population, ~6.5 percent in pregnant women, and ~10 percent in Mbarara. At one point, rates were down to approximately 4 percent, but when preventative education efforts relaxed (for example, the ABC campaign: Abstinence, Be faithful, and Condomize), the rates rose again to ~8 percent. These numbers are still low compared to other African nations like South Africa.
*Each Ugandan woman has an average of 7 children. The Ugandan government will subsidize schooling for 4 children up through 7th grade.
*Oil reserves have been discovered in Western Uganda. Although some people here are excited by the implications for Uganda’s development, others worry it will lead to an "oil curse" (like in Nigeria) and not benefit the country. Exploitation is another possible outcome.
*Uganda graduates approximately 200 doctors per year. Of those, only about 50 doctors choose to stay in the country. The rest travel to greener prospects--the U.S., Europe. Those who stay typically opt for private practice due to the higher salaries and poor public resources.
*On epidurals and childbirth: "I usually call that a luxury of the West." This was from our first lecturer on antenatal care, when someone in the group asked him about the availability of pain relief during labor. This isn’t surprising to me given the facilities and extant of the resource-constrained limitations we’ve seen.
A glimpse of the main street in Mbarara:
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