Police and district officials in Ntungamo are investigating circumstances under which a 21-year-old mother delivered a baby from the gate at Kitwe Health Centre IV.

It is reported that Anita Mushiwimana who expected to give birth one week later felt labor pains on Saturday evening.

At about 8.30pm, she moved to Kitwe Health Centre IV where she was allegedly asked to pay 50,000Ushs by the midwife, Juliet Uwamurera.

It is reported that Uwamurere who was the only medical officer around, said she would not touch her unless they gave her the money she was asking for and later ordered them to leave the maternity ward for failing to pay.

Mushiwimana’s mother, Ms Veneranda Mukaturasinze said after about an hour of pleading, they walked out when they realized the midwife was not moved.

She advised them to go to Itojo hospital where Mushiwimana would produce her first child from. Left without a choice, Mushiwimana heeded to the midwife’s advice and packed all her belongings and started to walk out but could not go beyond the health facility’s gate because the pain was too much. She sat at the gate for hours as her mother held her.

She later gave birth to a baby girl with the help of her mother and some two casual labourers.

Chaos has today erupted along Kikuubo lane as energetic traders and other members of the public scrambled to grab clothes and food that a street preacher brought to donate to street children.

David Kaita of Spirit Awakening Ministries says as a street a preacher, he wanted to share this year’s Christmas with the needy and people who are less privileged. He was shocked to discover that the people who the kids were targeting for food donations would in turn target him for the donations he was taking to the same kids.

Many people resorted to grabbing the clothes from the preacher’s assistants, and this made it quite difficult for the organizers to distribute the clothes fairly to the intended beneficiaries of whom mothers and children were the priority.

Kaita adds that they have otherwise distributed clothes to over 200 people in Kampala including street children and other less privileged groups.

One person has been confirmed dead and several others injured in a fatal accident that occurred today along Mbarara-Lyantonde road.

Police identified the deceased as Tinfayo Siraji, the bus driver who was driving a TAUSI BUS Reg No. UBK 516S that was involved in the accident. The bus was from Ishaka/Mbarara heading to Kampala when it collided with a Fuso lorry Reg. no UBD193P heading to Mbarara.

It is alleged that the Fuso lorry loaded with Sugar going to Mbarara was trying to overtake an unidentified Wish car in a corner.

The body of the driver has been taken to Lyantonde hospital mortuary while the injured were rushed to Lyantonde Hospital for emergency care.

In the effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the first injectable PrEP option has been approved by the US FDA, the country’s drug regulatory authority.

The pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug; cabotegravir, goes by the name Apretude, is an HIV PrEP option that people at-risk can take at intervals of two months. It has been approved for use in adults and adolescents by US regulator. The user has to be HIV negative and weigh at least 35 kgs.

Before this approval, only two types (Truvada and Descovy) of PrEP had been approved for use for HIV negative individuals at-risk.

Dr Marianne Mureithi, a researcher on HIV/AIDS with the Kenya Aids Vaccine Initiative (Kavi), says the injectable is a breakthrough that has come right in time as PrEP is more effective at preventing HIV on a population level since the six shots per year make it easier for people to adhere to.

Results from the research and study conducted by WHO last year in south and eastern Africa showed that women were biased about the injectable but there were better results from the injectable PrEP compared to the oral pills.

Two studies highlighted by the FDA showed that, compared to oral pills, the injectable PrEP offered potent protection.

In one of the studies, participants who took the new injectable, Apretude, had a 69%less risk from getting HIV compared to taking the Truvada PrEP pill that was used in the study.

The second study showed a 90% less risk of getting HIV after taking the injectable.

The Aids vaccine advocacy coalition (Avac) said in a statement shortly after this approval that the approved injectable PrEP is now available in the US and that Avac and partners would work to support the review by health regulatory authorities in other parts of the world.