Cervical cancer is a serious health concern in Uganda. Early screening and detection certainly improves chances of survival and treatment outcome. Sound knowledge and positive attitudes highly influence acceptability and uptake of screening methods. This descriptive cross-sectional study determines knowledge and attitudes towards Cervical Cancer screening amongst female out-patients aged 15 -49 years, attending Health Centre IIIs in Oyam District, Northern Uganda. A systematically obtained sample of 445 respondents was interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires and focused group discussions. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Directed content analysis of themes of transcribed qualitative data was conducted manually. Of the 445 respondents, only 62.7% (n = 279) had heard of cervical cancer amongst which only 35.1% (n = 85) had been screened; 13.7% (n = 34) did not know what screening was; 3.7% (n = 9) were not sure and 5.8% (n = 14) knew it as removal of the cervix. Only 39.1% (n = 174) believed that cervical cancer can be prevented. There is still limited knowledge and lots of misconceptions about cervical cancer screening in the communities, which requires massive sensitization of the population at risk to change negative attitudes and maximize acceptability to screening methods.

Background People with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis require sputum smear monitoring at 2, 5, and 6 months to establish treatment outcomes. However, there is limited information about sputum smear monitoring in Uganda, similar to other developing countries. We examined factors associated with complete sputum smear monitoring among persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB aged ≥ 15 years in central Uganda. Methods We retrospectively reviewed and abstracted data for persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB initiated on treatment between January 2017 and December 2019 across 11 large TB units in Masaka district in central Uganda. Complete sputum smear monitoring was measured as the receipt of three sputum smear microscopy tests at 2, 5, and 6 months of TB treatment. The data were summarized descriptively and the differences in the outcome with independent variables were examined using tests of statistical significance, namely the Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test and the student’s t-test. The factors independently associated with the outcome were established using the modified Poisson regression analysis with robust standard errors, reported as adjusted risk ratio (aRR) along with the 95% confidence interval (CI). Results A total of 416 participants were enrolled, with a mean age of 37.3 ± 12.9 years. Of the participants, 290 (69.7) were males, 269 (64.7) were rural residents, and 128 (30.8%) had complete sputum smear monitoring. Urban residence (aRR, 1.45; 95% CI 1.12–1.90) and treatment under the community-based directly observed therapy short-course strategy (DOTS) (aRR, 1.91; 95% CI 1.25–2.92) were associated with a higher likelihood of complete sputum smear monitoring while TB and human immunodeficiency virus (TB/HIV) comorbidity (aRR 0.45, 95% CI 0.30–0.68) was associated with a lower likelihood of complete sputum smear monitoring. Conclusions We found a low magnitude of complete sputum smear monitoring among persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB aged ≥ 15 years in central Uganda. Strategies to enhance the performance of sputum smear monitoring should target rural health facilities, strengthen TB/HIV collaboration and the implementation of community-based DOTS.

<p>Conceptual hydrological models can play an important role in real-time river forecasting systems due to their limited calculation time and versatility. Nevertheless, their simplified structure, very often based on the water content in multiple storages, and constrained physical background hampers their applicability in seasonally influenced catchments. In particular, these models often show good forecasting performance in one season (e.g. for high discharges in wet seasons), but fail to capture events in other seasons (e.g. due to typical high intensity precipitation during dry periods). To overcome this issue, we propose a seasonal calibration approach for conceptual hydrological models, based on the results of a seasonal sensitivity analysis. The obtained seasonal models however induce an additional challenge within a continuous real-time river forecasting system: the transition from one seasonal model to another. The latter is of particular importance when the volume of the storages in the conceptual model changes between different seasons. An application with the conceptual NAM model for three catchments in Belgium will be used to illustrate the proposed calibration strategy and a number of possible solutions for the transition issue.</p>

Background: People with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis require sputum smear monitoring at 2, 5, and 6 months to establish treatment outcomes. However, there is limited information about sputum smear monitoring in Uganda, similar to other developing countries. We examined factors associated with complete sputum smear monitoring among persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB aged ≥15 years in central Uganda.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed and abstracted data for persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB initiated on treatment between January 2017 and December 2019 across 11 large TB units in Masaka district in central Uganda. Complete sputum smear monitoring was measured as the receipt of three sputum smear microscopy tests at 2, 5, and 6 months of TB treatment. The data were summarized descriptively and the differences in the outcome with independent variables were examined using tests of statistical significance. The factors independently associated with the outcome were established using the modified Poisson regression analysis with robust standard errors, reported as adjusted risk ratio (aRR) along with the 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: A total of 416 participants were enrolled, with a mean age of 37.3 ±12.9 years. Of the participants, 290 (69.7) were males, 269 (64.7) were rural residents, and 128 (30.8%) had complete sputum smear monitoring. Urban residence (aRR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.12-1.90), treatment under the community-based directly observed therapy short-course strategy (DOTS) (aRR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.25–2.92), and TB and human immunodeficiency virus (TB/HIV) comorbidity (aRR 0.45, 95% CI 0.30–0.68) were associated with complete sputum smear monitoring. Conclusions: We observed a low magnitude of complete sputum smear monitoring among persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB aged ≥15 years in central Uganda. Urban residence and treatment under community-based DOTS are associated with a higher likelihood of complete sputum smear monitoring while TB/HIV co-infection is associated with a lower likelihood of complete sputum smear monitoring. At rural health facilities, there is a need to develop strategies to enhance the performance of sputum smear monitoring. Additionally, TB/HIV collaboration and the implementation of community-based DOTS should be strengthened to increase the performance of sputum smear monitoring.