“I can tell you that rats destroy up to 60% of health
equipment in Africa,” Ssali said
Much of the damage to expensive diagnostic equipment in
African health facilities is a result of bites from rats, a
Ugandan consultant biomedical engineer revealed on
Monday.
Eng. Joseph Ssali, who holds vast experience in
installation of health equipment in hospitals across the
continent, told delegates at a conference in Kampala that
rats are the worst enemies of the devices.
“I can tell you that rats destroy up to 60% of health
equipment in Africa,” Ssali said at the first Biennial
National Uganda National Biomedical Engineering
Conference at Hotel Africa on Monday.
Ssali sought to highlight the dangers that exist when
biomedical engineers are not consulted in the
management of health equipment including x-rays and CT
scans.
For instance, he narrated, cables of a CT scan installed at
one unnamed facility were eaten up by rats, costing the
institution over $5,000 to replace.
Biomedical engineers are professionals who maintain and
repair machines for diagnosing medical problems. They
design medical equipment and devices, artificial internal
organs or synthetic body parts.
In Africa, the profession is relatively new-just about 10
years old in Uganda, it has been in existence in the
developed world for nearly half a century.
Without biomedical engineers, the functioning of health
equipment would be at stake and costs of hiring experts to
maintain them or procure new equipment would be
unmanageable.
According to Ssali, it is common practice for health
institutions to procure machines and install them in
facilities without consulting biomedical engineers, raising
potential risks to patients or caregivers.
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