Project Background

Apparently, the world is faced with the pandemic of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A new virus that spreads so fast through contaminated mouth droplets especially in crowded places and cause illness, it is spread from person to person through sneezing or coughing contaminated droplets, human to human contact and contaminated surfaces. As of now, there is no specific vaccine or treatment for COVID-19. However, there are many ongoing clinical trials evaluating potential treatments. Therefore, we need to find a way how to live with the disease. So that we leave a room for the country to operate normally till the vaccine/treatment is discovered.

Its more than 2,756confirmed COVID-19 cases but the ministry of health and the government of Uganda has so far registered less (28)COVID-19 death cases than recoveries (1,288), by the end of the Month August 2020. However, these figures are expected to rise if not addressed together as Ugandans to find a way of how to endemically combat and or live with the disease until the vaccine or treatment is discovered. This can only be done by emphasizing the dedicated use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) such as use of masks, hand sanitizing, wash of hands with soaps and avoiding over-crowding as it is reflected in the local community gatherings such as shopping arcades, markets, churches, schools and others.

Corona-virus (Covid19) is a new condition that causes respiratory illness in people and animals. It spreads from person to person when an infected person sneeze or coughing droplets come into contact with the others and when come into contact with contaminated surface like, desks, chairs, door handles, etc. Then transfer it to the soft tissues of the eyes, mouth and nose. This virus has signs and symptoms similar to common cold but is dangerous and if not reported and addressed early to get managed by health workers, it can cause severe illness and death in human. Everyone is at risk, however severe symptoms and death appear more frequently among older people, people with underlying health conditions such as lung or heart disease and, people with low immunity levels.

There is currently no vaccine to protect against corona virus (Covid19), but the best way to prevent the infection is to avoid being exposed to the virus or to those infected with the virus. Avoid touching sensitive parts of body such as face, eyes, mouth and nose with unwashed hands. Wash hands often with soap and running water for at list 20 seconds or with alcohol based sanitizer. Use of face masks to cover the nose and mouth, Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces such as door handles, benches and others.

Now days, infections comes as a result of improper hygiene have caught up the Globe. Urinary tract infections (UTS) are the most common health conditions that are managed by antibiotics. It’s caused by improper disposal of waste products, putting on tight clothes as it may absorb heat in the intimate areas which cause destruction of genital normal flora that fights against the manifestation of the disease causing bacteria and also maintain PH of the place.

Improper body hygiene and the waste areas like toilets and washrooms are also said to be risk factors for UTIs high incidence and prevalence rate among women. UTIs is ranked third with the percentage of 4.5% equivalent to 1.7m cases of illness among all ages in the country , malaria (29.5)being ranked first followed by pneumonia(26.9) respectively of the disease burden according to Ministry of Health (MoH) report for the year 2017-2018.
Almost 85% of the women population in Uganda has experienced UTIs at list once in their lifetime. Due to its high prevalence, UTIs is among the major risk factors for uterine abnormalities that as resulted into infertilities in women of reproductive age and most common cause of antibiotic resistance.

This is because the community has abandoned the preventive mechanism of disease control, like primary health care, hygienic measures, etc. That prevents the occurrence and the spread of diseases and resort to curative mechanism of waiting for the disease to occur and then provide treatment. The re-occurrence and or re-infection of UTIs has resulted to self-medication that has led to drug resistance.

The Ministry of health therefore, came up with measures to control antibiotic resistance in Uganda by creating awareness on the proper use of drugs. It urges the pharmacists to only dispense medication (drugs) prescribed by clinicians and hence avoid self-medication. In addition, MoH advised the public to always look forward to prevent the diseases before it manifest the body by maintaining proper hygiene and primary health care.

In that regard, we expect crowded areas such as schools and churches to re-open soon. But schools are among the highly crowded places that need to be scientifically monitored if opened in this COVID-19 period. Therefore, as CSOs that fall under the health sector in Uganda, we are entitled to come out for partnership and give support to the government to create awareness on how to prevent the spread and to emphasize the use of available preventive measure standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)to combat the diseases.

As Fundamental Research on Eradication of Neglected Diseases in Africa (FRENDA), our emphasis will focus on the local communities such as Schools because it contains a gigantic population from different areas of the County. This will be achieved through carrying out random COVID-19 fast line testing every after three (3) Months, taking students medical records including signs related to COVID-19, sensitize the students on how to prevent the spread of infections, emphasize primary health care and the use of available preventive measures (SOPs), and notify the Ministry of Health on the suspected cases for its immediate intervention.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health, Education and sports and other relevant stakeholders has to challenge the schools administrators to avoid day schooling as it may increase the transmission of the coronavirus disease. Emphasize the observance of all the available preventive measures and SOPs. Because when students are gathered in one place at school with no intruders, it becomes easy to manage and identify the victims if any and then follow-up on to the contactee-persons to avoid the transmission of the disease from the communities outside school.

Main Objective
(I) To combat the spread of coronavirus (COVID19) disease in schools.

Specific Objectives
i) Create awareness on the available COVID19 Standards Operating Procedures (SOPs),
ii) Combat prevalent cases of UTIs among students in schools,
iii) Re-enforce preventive mechanism of disease management,
iv) Restore primary health care in the communities,
v) Promotion of interpersonal hygiene in schools,
vi) Reduce Antibiotic resistance due to re-occurrence of the infections and drag abuse

Target group & Beneficiaries
The target population will be secondary school students with in three districts Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono for 12 months.

Expected Outcomes
i) Reduced spread of coronavirus (COVID19) in the communities,
ii) Promoted hygiene among people in the communities,
iii) Reduction on antibiotic resistance due to re-occurrence of infection,
iv) Restored primary health care in the communities,
v) Combated prevalent cases of UTIs among students in schools.

Main Activities
i) Distribution of face masks in Schools,
ii) Carry out random COVID-19 fast line testing every after three months.
iii) Taking students medical records including signs related to COVID-19,
iv) Notify the Ministry of Health on the suspected cases for it to intervene,
v) Organizing seminars and workshops on how to promote hygiene in schools.

Methodology
This will be achieved through a wide range of sensitization and networking initiatives, where FRENDA will strengthen the knowledge of secondary students about COVID19 and UTIs preventive strategies. Best practice exchanges complemented with a set of tools and mechanisms to provide the grounds for increased awareness will be established.

Sustainability
The sustainability for the project is crucial and to ensure long-term success, there are strategies that have been identified as below:

• Mainstreaming with Government

The project shall build replicable model of support and access to quality healthcare without compromise, which can be adopted by the Government. Significant effort also will be placed on liaising with the Government and promoting this successful model of healthcare for people with COVID-19 and UTIs in the communities.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan
Basically, the monitoring and evaluation system will be inbuilt where diversions will be identified as soon as they occur. Monitoring tools such as reporting, monthly meetings, project visits and advisory meetings will be held regularly and information will be channeled to review the progress of the project with all stakeholders including the primary beneficiaries and the ministry of health. Further, a deliberate effort will be made to make reports quarterly about the progress of the project, and these will be shared among project stakeholders.