The Luigi Sacco hospital in Milan extends its hand to one of the largest non-profit hospitals in Equatorial Africa, the Lacor Hospital in Gulu in Uganda. For a couple of months, Dr. Giuliano Rizzardini, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Dr. Beatrice Borghi, anesthetist and resuscitator of the Sacco, have been sharing their experience in the management of the Covid patient with the Lacor health workers.
The connections
Founded 60 years ago by the Italian pediatrician Piero Corti and the Canadian surgeon Lucille Teasdale, today Lacor Hospital, with its 250,000 patients admitted every year, is a health reference for one of the most vulnerable populations on the planet. In Northern Uganda, Lacor is the only hospital unit to have an oxygen production and distribution system at the patient’s bed, built a couple of years ago by the Lacor Technical Department. Every two weeks, Lacor health workers connect with the Sacco hospital in Milan to share doubts and practices on the management of the pandemic. Together with them are Dominique Atim Corti, daughter of the founders of the Ugandan hospital and president of the Foundation that has supported Lacor for 25 years, www.fondazionecorti.it and Dr. Andrea Coppadoro, anesthetist and resuscitator of the San Gerardo di Monza and volunteer of the Corti Foundation.
How the pandemic is tackled
Among the topics addressed, the opportunity to pronate patients, the management of coagulation drugs and antibiotics, non-invasive ventilation, air hunger and everything we have learned about in these months of pandemic, says Beatrice. Villages. Due to the pandemic, the hospital management has decided to open a Covid-19 intensive care with dedicated staff. The challenges? Reduced staff, inadequate protective equipment and few oxygen delivery tools such as nasal tips, face masks and CPAP; difficult to effectively assist and resuscitate patients.
The challenge with Ebola
Not the first time that the Sacco hospital and Lacor Hospital have collaborated. In 2016, the focus was Ebola. Exchange of good practices, but also research and training. An epidemiological survey was recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Plos One showing a decline in the prevalence of hepatitis B and HIV co-infection in Northern Uganda. The study was carried out thanks to the collaboration between Lacor and Sacco.
The numbers
Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been about 40,000 positive people and 333 deaths, out of about 900,000 swabs performed in Uganda. The long hot and dry season and half of the 45 million inhabitants under the age of 17 have helped to alleviate severe forms of the disease. Lacor contained infections among the staff of 28 employees, less than 1% of the total. Thanks to the Covax initiative, the first doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Uganda have been administered to all healthcare personnel, including Lacor.
March 31, 2021 (change March 31, 2021 | 20:01)
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