Dr Sabrina Kitaka: Beyond the call of duty

Dr Sabrina Bakeera Kitaka is one of the most quoted paediatricians by the Ugandan media. The 46-year-old is a zealous wife, mother, senior lecturer, motivational speaker and adolescent health specialist with particular interest for children and adolescents with HIV.
Dr Kitaka puts a child as the centre of her work and thoughts. Her goal has always been to work beyond the call of duty and although she had thought she would retire at 40, she thinks she can still serve people because this is her call.

The cheerful doctor is an explorer and insists on high standards of perfection in her work. She is a good communicator who does not neglect her family. Throughout the conversation, she keeps showing me pictures of her family in her phone gallery.
Her interaction with other members of the health care team during the Uganda Medical Association conference, regardless of their role, reveals a modern physician who understands that she is only a member of the team that has paediatric knowledge. She is humble.

As a child, Dr Kitaka’s professional dreams kept on changing. First to become a news anchor, an air hostess, a High Court judge so she could wear the prestigious wig until, with the guidance of her mother and elder sister who is also a doctor, she decided to become a doctor.

Serving
Dr Kitaka has been a paediatrician since 2002. To her, being a doctor is always exciting and interesting and it is about giving back to society.
“However, being a paediatrician (in particular) is more gratifying. You know, when a child is sick, the whole family gets restless; so, it goes beyond treating just a child,” says.
Some people think paediatricians treat children below five years but, according to Dr Kitaka, adolescents too fall in that category and their health issues do not seem to get enough attention as few people actually think about adolescents as being in need.

It is against this background that the doctor advocated for an adolescent clinic at the Old Mulago hospital ward 15 which runs every Friday, offering free consultations, medical examinations, counselling and sexual and reproductive health, among others, to the adolescents.

“When I had just qualified, I had told myself that by 40 years I would retire, but now I realise there are so many things I still have to do and people need me to save more patients,” she says.
This kind of work, she adds, “is not possible if I was doing it alone. Teamwork has made it more interesting and gratifying when we treat a child and they recover. Also, when I mentor a student and I find them in some place working well. It gives me joy.”
She is also an international figure who has made presentations all over the world as well as lecturing at Columbia University, the university of Minnesota and Tanzania.

First experience as a doctor
When I qualified in 1995, I worked at St Francis Hospital Nsambya as an intern and my first patient was an elderly man who needed a catheter urethra to drain the bladder. Upon seeing how young and tiny I was, he did not want me to attend to him. I was stuck because I was the only one on duty and in his reasoning, I was a grandchild who did not have to see his private parts. I tried to explain to him and he eventually understood.

Parenting
Dr Sabrina Kitaka has been married to Andrew Kitaka, an engineer with KCCA, for about 25 years and they have five children. When asked what kind of mother she is, Kitaka says, “I think I am a calm mother. We do various activities as a family. I do not believe in spanking children. When I get angry, I walk away and return when I have calmed down. Most conflicts which arise between parents and their teenage children are because of lack of communication. I keep in constant communication with them and they are well behaved.”

Aspirations
Dr Kitaka believes that children should be born to live so she highly regards saving lives of children as her call. She aims at eliminating paediatric transmission of HIV and in this regard, she is completing her PhD and her major focus is on adolescents living with HIV and how they transition from the time of disclosure by the parents or guardians, taking their ARVs and how they deal with sex and sexuality.
“I, therefore, want to grow the adolescent care programme for this country,” she says.

QUICK NOTES
Dr Kitaka was born in Uganda to the late Paul Sam Ssemuli Bakeera who was a mining engineer working in Kasese and Ms Teddy Bakeera, a retired nurse. Before joining Makerere University where she studied medicine from 1990 to 1995, Dr Kitaka went to European Preparatory School, now called Namuhunga Primary School, which was in the Kilembe mines where her father worked in Kasese and then Mt St Mary’s College Namagunga for her secondary education. She later did a Master’s of Paediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University, as well as a Fellowship in Paediatric Infectious Diseases supported by the Infectious Diseases Institute and the Paediatrics Infectious Diseases Clinic.

She is an active member of the Mother’s Union at All Saints church, Mutundwe, where she coordinates the Sunday school, likes taking pictures of nature and enjoys music by Whitney Houston, R. Kelly and Juliana Kanyomozi.
She has taught Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine to both undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Department of Paediatrics since October 2002 and has participated in and supervised research projects with more than 30 publications in peer reviewed journals.
She was also consulted by World Health Organisation in the drawing of health guidelines for pneumonia among children living with HIV/Aids.

Tomorrow read about Helma Atim Balmoi who at 35 has counselled numerous mothers, couples and single mothers.