Family medicine's role in health care systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Uganda as an example.

Sub-Saharan Africa is probably the region with the worst health indices in the region. Although health problems in this region are largely preventable through a good primary health care system, efforts to implement such a system have not been so successful and neither have reforms suggested by the World Bank. However, there are new efforts to improve delivery of health care by introducing family medicine in the region through decentralized health care systems.

Family Medicine may be helpful in improving health care delivery in sub-Saharan Africa.

Efforts to introduce and integrate the discipline of family medicine in sub-Saharan Africa have remained slow due to failure to understand what role and benefit such physicians can play in the existing health care systems in the region. An attempt is made here to explain reasons for this trend and suggest ways to overcome it.

Towards a better understanding of exclusive breastfeeding in the era of HIV/AIDS: a study of prevalence and factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding from birth, in Rakai,Uganda.

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is being promoted by WHO/UNICEF as the recommended mode of feeding for all infants from birth to around 6 months of age. It is also recommended for the initial few months, for infants born to HIV-positive mothers in the developing world where conditions may not be ideal for replacement feeding. A cross-sectional study was done to find the prevalence and factors associated with EBF from delivery, amongst mothers of infants 0-6 months of age in a rural Ugandan community with a high HIV/AIDS burden.