Urolink represents BAUS in Low & Middle Income Countries (LMICs)
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Latest news from Urolink ...
December 2023. Read about Paul Anderson, Ram Subramaniam, 
David Dickerson, Steve Payne and Suzie Venn travelling with TUF/Urolink fellow Wilson To, to the 14th Lester Eshleman Workshop, in KCMC Tanzania, where the workshop's main focus was on adult and paediatric reconstruction. This normally biennial event had not happened for 4 years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and was, sadly, overshadowed by the very sudden death of Professor Kien Alfred Mteta during the week (see below).
November 2023. It is with the greatest sadness and regret that we announce the sudden, and unexpected, death of Professor Kien Alfred Mteta on Wednesday 22 November 2023. Prof Mteta was formerly Head of department at the COSECSA/ASEA Institute of Urology at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi Tanzania and Dean of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College.
Alfred was the first Urological Surgical Consultant to join Dr Lester Eshleman at KCMC. Together with his colleagues Drs Jasper Mwambo and Frank Bright, Alfred was a mentor to many of the hundreds of trainees who came from all parts of East Africa to train in urology at the Institute. Alfred had a very long partnership with BAUS and Urolink, especially during the 2005 building programme of the Urology Unit at KCMC, and was a frequent visitor to the BAUS Annual Meeting.
We send our sincerest condolences to his family and colleagues, knowing that his wise counsel, support and friendship will be greatly missed in Tanzania, and beyond.
November 2023. Ram Subramaniam visited KCH in Lilongwe to follow up his previous visit in March, and to consolidate the hypospadias training he had started with Charles Mabedi and Amarylis Mapurisa in Malawi. Betwen the three of them, and with Amarylis's colleague Bip Nandi, they managed to evaluate and operate on 13 cases in 4 days, with over 60% of procedures being led by the local surgeons. Both proximal and distal hypospadias repair are now regularly in the repertoire of KCH; Ram is planning a further visit in 12 months' time to consolidate on the tremendous progress made in this relatively new link centre.
September 2023. Read the paper, published online in the World Journal of Surgery by members of the Urology Society of Ethiopia (USE), about the issues there are in providing urological services in the country. Although there has been a very significant increase in the number of urologists since 2016, there is still a huge unprovided need for urological services in this part of East Africa. Our colleagues Anteneh Kifle, Tilaneh Leyeh, Getaneh Teferi and Tizazu Tsega outline the issues in providing urological care in Ethiopia, togther with input from Jacques Bogdanowicz (from KCMC) and Urolink's Shekhar Biyani.
August 2023. Watch the penile cancer webinar from 8 August 2023. Bruce Mesebo and John Pascoe discuss the longitudinal management of cases of penile cancer from UTH in Lusaka, Zambia and Exeter in the UK. Nic Ngowy (from Tanzania), Adi Manunath and Varun Sahdev (both from the UK) moderated the session. Late presentations due to stigma and limited access to public healthcare are common in Zambia where many cases are associated with HIV infection. Victor Mapalunga gave insightful information about the course that HIV-associated cancers run, and the difficulties in their management. He also discusses the case for HPV vaccination, the limitations in its uses in sub-Saharan Africa whilst Nic discusses the role of prophylactic circumcision to reduce the risk of developing penile cancer. Depression is common in patients having destructive penile surgery, with limited access to psychological help in Zambia, and there was an interesting discussion about the differences in its management between the two countries.
You may also be interested in ...
Listening to Nick Campain interviewing Ru MacDonagh about how he became involved with Urolink, his first experiences of working in Africa, and how this developed into a career-long association with the continent. In, Urolink and me. Setting up the HIPZ charity, Ru explains how his association with Mohamed Jidawi in Zanzibar led to the setting up the Health Improvement Zanzibar (HIPZ) charity in 2006, and how this was the impetus to becoming a leader in Zanzibarian healthcare.
Reading Steve Payne's editorial in the BJUI "What is different about urology in low-middle income countries?" . This summarizes the differences in needs, disease, education, treatments and access to care between high and low, low-middle income countries, drawing on the contents of the 12 papers published by the BJUI during 2022. This series of papers can be found on the Publications page.
Hearing Neville Harrison, the first Chair of Urolink, talking to Steve Payne in March 2021. This podcast tells us about how Neville first came under Africa's spell, his role in the setting up of Urolink in the 1980's, and who helped him achieve the first sustainable link to KCMC in Tanzania. A fascinating retrospective, as Urolink celebrates it's thirtieth birthday!
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