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Opinion: Community health workers will be the main defense in rural Uganda against coronavirus

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. I think all of us have that small bit of fear. But we will always be there for those who…
People wait in a line to enter a pharmacy in Kampala, Uganda, on Thursday after President Yoweri Museveni directed the public earlier in the week to stay home for 32 days to curb the spread of Covid-19.

It is a cool, still morning in Seeta Nazigo Village, Central Uganda. The heavy seasonal rains have ceased and the sun begins to glint through the cracked windowpanes of the local health center’s Anti-Retroviral Clinic. Fourteen community health workers are packed into the small room.

Community health workers, who have formed the since 2001, are lay persons acting in a voluntary capacity to deliver vital health services in their respective villages. These services range from recognizing and treating common childhood illnesses, such as malaria and pneumonia, to providing maternal health services where otherwise none would be available. Now they’ll be facing , a disease that has countries with highly developed health

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