Assessment of hospital-based adult triage at emergency receiving areas in hospitals in Northern Uganda

Background: Limited health service resources must be used in a manner which does "the most for the most". This is partly achieved through the use of a triage system, but health workers must understand it, and it must be used routinely. Whereas efforts have been made to introduce paediatric triage in Uganda, such as Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Plus (ETAT+), there is no unified adult triage system being used in Uganda, and it is not clear if hospitals have local protocols being used in each setting. There are limited data on adult triage systems in Uganda. This study aimed at determining how adult hospital-based triage is performed in hospitals in northern Uganda. Methodology: This was a descriptive study. Allocating numbers to the three sub-regions in the northern region, and using a random number generator, we randomly selected the Acholi sub-region for the study. The study was conducted in 6 of the 7 hospitals in the region - one hospital declined to grant permission for the research. It was a written questionnaire survey under supervision of the investigator. In each hospital, at least one representative of nurses in various duty shifts (night, morning and evening shifts), the nursing in-charge/leader, at least one doctor (head of department or any doctor on duty, if available) and a clinical officer (physician assistant, if available), making a minimum of 5-6 study participants who were health professional staff working in emergency receiving areas from each hospital consented and participated in the study. Results: Thirty-three participants from 6 hospitals including 5 doctors, 4 physician assistants, 11 registered nurses, 9 enrolled nurses and 4 nursing assistants consented and participated in the study. Experience of staff working in emergency receiving areas varied with 15(45.5%) greater than 2 years, 7(21.2%) 1-2 years, 5(15.2%) 6 - <12 months and 6(18.2%) for less than 6 months. Only one hospital (16.7%) of the 6 hospitals surveyed had a formal adult hospital-based triage protocol in place. The triage guide/protocol/charts were kept in drawers, had 3 colours - red, yellow and green. Staff rated it as "good", and all staff acknowledged the need to improve it. Only 2 (33.3%) hospitals had an allocated emergency department, the rest receive emergency patients/perform triage from Out Patient Department (OPD) and wards. Lack of training, variation of triage protocols from hospital to another, shortage of staff on duty, absence of national guidelines on triage and poor administrative support were the major barriers to improving/developing formal triage in all these hospitals. Conclusion: Formal adult, hospital-based triage is widely lacking in northern Uganda, and staff do perform subjective "eyeball" judgments to make triage decisions. Most hospitals do not have specifically allocated emergency department which risks disorganization in the flow of patients, crowding and consequently worse patient outcomes

Assessment of hospital-based adult triage at emergency receiving areas in hospitals in Northern Uganda

Background: Limited health service resources must be used in a manner which does “the most for the most”. This is partly achieved through the use of a triage system. Whereas efforts have been made to introduce paediatric triage in Uganda such as Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Plus (ETAT+), it is not clear if hospitals have local protocols for adult triage being used in each setting.Objectives: To determine the presence of existing hospital triage systems, the cadre of staff undertaking triage and barriers to development/improvement of formal triage systems.Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Acholi sub-region was randomly selected for the study among the three sub-regions in Northern Uganda. The study was conducted in 6 of the 7 hospitals in the region. It was a written self-administered questionnaire.Results: Thirty-three participants from 6 hospitals consented and participated in the study. Only one hospital (16.7%) of the 6 hospitals surveyed had a formal hospital-based adult triage protocol in place. Only 2 (33.3%) hospitals had an allocated emergency department, the rest receive emergency patients/perform triage from OPD and wards. Lack of training, variation of triage protocols from hospital to another, shortage of staff on duty, absence of national guidelines on triage and poor administrative support were the major barriers to improvement /development of formal triage in all these hospitals.Conclusion: Formal adult hospital-based triage is widely lacking in Northern Uganda and staff do perform subjective “eyeball” judgments to make triage decisions.Keywords: Triage, “eyeball” triage, emergency receiving areas, and emergency health condition

Assessment of hospital-based adult triage at emergency receiving areas in hospitals in Northern Uganda.

Background: Limited health service resources must be used in a manner which does \u201cthe most for the most\u201d. This is partly achieved through the use of a triage system. Whereas efforts have been made to introduce paediatric triage in Uganda such as Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Plus (ETAT+), it is not clear if hospitals have local protocols for adult triage being used in each setting. Objectives: To determine the presence of existing hospital triage systems, the cadre of staff undertaking triage and barriers to development/improvement of formal triage systems. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Acholi sub-region was randomly selected for the study among the three sub-regions in Northern Uganda. The study was conducted in 6 of the 7 hospitals in the region. It was a written self-administered questionnaire. Results: Thirty-three participants from 6 hospitals consented and participated in the study. Only one hospital (16.7%) of the 6 hospitals surveyed had a formal hospital-based adult triage protocol in place. Only 2 (33.3%) hospitals had an allocated emergency department, the rest receive emergency patients/perform triage from OPD and wards. Lack of training, variation of triage protocols from hospital to another, shortage of staff on duty, absence of national guidelines on triage and poor administrative support were the major barriers to improvement/development of formal triage in all these hospitals. Conclusion: Formal adult hospital-based triage is widely lacking in Northern Uganda and staff do perform subjective \u201ceyeball\u201d judgments to make triage decisions

Spatio-temporal distribution of Spiroplasma infections in the tsetse fly (Glossina fuscipes fuscipes) in northern Uganda

Copyright: © 2019 Schneider et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) are vectors of parasitic trypanosomes, which cause human (HAT) and animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT) in sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda, Glossina fuscipes fuscipes (Gff) is the main vector of HAT, where it transmits Gambiense disease in the northwest and Rhodesiense disease in central, southeast and western regions. Endosymbionts can influence transmission efficiency of parasites through their insect vectors via conferring a protective effect against the parasite. It is known that the bacterium Spiroplasma is capable of protecting its Drosophila host from infection with a parasitic nematode. This endosymbiont can also impact its host\u27s population structure via altering host reproductive traits. Here, we used field collections across 26 different Gff sampling sites in northern and western Uganda to investigate the association of Spiroplasma with geographic origin, seasonal conditions, Gff genetic background and sex, and trypanosome infection status. We also investigated the influence of Spiroplasma on Gff vector competence to trypanosome infections under laboratory conditions. Generalized linear models (GLM) showed that Spiroplasma probability was correlated with the geographic origin of Gff host and with the season of collection, with higher prevalence found in flies within the Albert Nile (0.42 vs 0.16) and Achwa River (0.36 vs 0.08) watersheds and with higher prevalence detected in flies collected in the intermediate than wet season. In contrast, there was no significant correlation of Spiroplasma prevalence with Gff host genetic background or sex once geographic origin was accounted for in generalized linear models. Additionally, we found a potential negative correlation of Spiroplasma with trypanosome infection, with only 2% of Spiroplasma infected flies harboring trypanosome co-infections. We also found that in a laboratory line of Gff, parasitic trypanosomes are less likely to colonize the midgut in individuals that harbor Spiroplasma infection. These results indicate that Spiroplasma infections in tsetse may be maintained by not only maternal but also via horizontal transmission routes, and Spiroplasma infections may also have important effects on trypanosome transmission efficiency of the host tsetse. Potential functional effects of Spiroplasma infection in Gff could have impacts on vector control approaches to reduce trypanosome infections

The impact of vector migration on the effectiveness of strategies to control gambiense human African trypanosomiasis

BACKGROUND: Several modeling studies have been undertaken to assess the feasibility of the WHO goal of eliminating gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (g-HAT) by 2030. However, these studies have generally overlooked the effect of vector migration on disease transmission and control. Here, we evaluated the impact of vector migration on the feasibility of interrupting transmission in different g-HAT foci. METHODS: We developed a g-HAT transmission model of a single tsetse population cluster that accounts for migration of tsetse fly into this population. We used a model calibration approach to constrain g-HAT incidence to ranges expected for high, moderate and low transmission settings, respectively. We used the model to evaluate the effectiveness of current intervention measures, including medical intervention through enhanced screening and treatment, and vector control, for interrupting g-HAT transmission in disease foci under each transmission setting. RESULTS: We showed that, in low transmission settings, under enhanced medical intervention alone, at least 70% treatment coverage is needed to interrupt g-HAT transmission within 10 years. In moderate transmission settings, a combination of medical intervention and a vector control measure with a daily tsetse mortality greater than 0.03 is required to achieve interruption of disease transmission within 10 years. In high transmission settings, interruption of disease transmission within 10 years requires a combination of at least 70% medical intervention coverage and at least 0.05 tsetse daily mortality rate from vector control. However, the probability of achieving elimination in high transmission settings decreases with an increased tsetse migration rate. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the WHO 2030 goal of G-HAT elimination is, at least in theory, achievable. But the presence of tsetse migration may reduce the probability of interrupting g-HAT transmission in moderate and high transmission foci. Therefore, optimal vector control programs should incorporate monitoring and controlling of vector density in buffer areas around foci of g-HAT control efforts

Robert Opiro's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

Tick-repellent properties of four plant species against Rhipicephalus appendiculatus Neumann (Acarina: Ixodidae) tick species

The objective of the present study was to investigate the repellence effects of extracts of four plant species on Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Neumann) larvae. The plants were Cissus adenocucaulis F, Cassia didymobotrya Fresen., Kigelia africana(Lam.) Benth. and Euphorbia hirta L. The effects were evaluated by the fingertip repellence bioassay using extracts obtained using three organic solvents of different polarities: methanol, dichloromethane and hexane. The study demonstrated that all extracts evaluated showed a repellence effect that ranged from 43-88%. For all four plant species, the use of different extraction solvents did not significantly vary repellence effect (P&gt;0.05). C. didymobotrya and K. africana showed the best repellence percentages. These indicate the strong potential of these plants for tick control in an integrated tick management system for livestock owned by resource-poor farmers in northern Uganda