Congratulations to Mulago Hospital’s Dr William Worodria

The 2023 American Thoracic Society Award has been won by a Ugandan medical doctor, Dr William Worodria of Mulago Hospital. Congratulations William for a job well done and thanks to your family for supporting your tireless efforts.

 The American Thoracic Society (ATS) is a non-profit organization founded in 1905 which focuses on improving care of lung diseases, critical illness and sleep associated breathing disorders.

 ATS is the leading medical society in the world dedicated to accelerating advancement of global respiratory health through multidisciplinary collaboration, education and advocacy. It has a global membership consisting of over 16,000 medical practitioners.

 The ATS awards recognize leaders in the field of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. These awards are presented during their annual conference. The Philip Hopewell Prize for Leaders in Global Respiratory Health was established in recognition of Dr Philip Hopewell, a member of Faculty of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who began work as a tuberculosis Consultant in Eastern Nigeria in 1973.

The award recognizes mid-career investigators in low and middle-income countries for their clinical and research commitment, including published research in peer-reviewed journals and commitment to global health policy. The award endeavours to support these individuals to become established leaders in Global Respiratory Health by providing support for professional development, networking, and mentorship.

Dr William Worodria is the second recipient of the award which he will receive on May 20, 2023 at a ceremony in Washington DC, USA. The first winner of the Philip Hopewell Prize was Dr Juliana Ferreira, PhD, Associate Professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at University of São Paulo Medical School, Brazil.

Dr Worodria is a Senior Consultant Physician and Pulmonologist at Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala. He heads the Division of Pulmonology at Mulago Hospital and is Honorary Professor of Medicine at Makerere University.

He is Assistant Adjunct Professor at Case Western Reserve University, USA and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Scotland.

 He is a Founding member and General Secretary of Uganda Thoracic Society, a Founding Director of the Lung Consortium International and the Chairman of the Makerere Lung Institute Technical Board. He is a Founding Director of World Alliance for Lung and Intensive Care in Uganda and Executive Committee member of Pan-African Thoracic Society.

   He is Senior Fellow at the Infectious Disease Institute, Kampala and has undertaken research in pulmonary complications of HIV and chronic respiratory diseases. He has authored 139 peer reviewed publications.

Dr Worodria has been involved in patient care, teaching and collaborative research. The collaborative research with colleagues at San Francisco California for the last 18 years was led by Prof. Laurence Huang. Other collaborators and mentors who have influenced his career growth include Prof Samuel Yoo of Jimma University, Dr Martin Okot Nwang of Mulago, Prof Robert Colebunders of University of Antwerp, Prof Elly Katabira of Makerere University, Prof Mayanja of Makerere University, Prof. Lucian Davis of Yale University and Prof Adithya Cattamanchi of UCSF. His work has greatly impacted patient care at Mulago Hospital and elsewhere.

Against this background, government should invest sufficient resources to complete renovations at Mulago National Referral Hospital instead of squandering meagre public resources on Lubowa Hospital which is a very expensive and dubious project. The Health Sector is poorly funded, receiving barely seven percent of the budget in the 2022/2023FY which is less than half of what African leaders agreed in 2001 in the Abuja Declaration according to which African countries, including Uganda, made a commitment to allocate at least 15 percent of their annual budgets to improve the Health Sector.

 I urge the Parliament of Uganda to honour the Abuja Declaration and allocate a minimum of 15 percent of the 2023/2024 budget to the Health Sector, as was routinely done in the 1960s, the golden age of post-colonial Uganda and Africa.

Mr Harold Acemah is a political scientist and retired career Ambassador Arua, Uganda.