Uganda News

Kampala, 17 November 2017:- The World Health Organization (WHO) has donated 10 motorcycles to Uganda’s Ministry of Health (MoH) to enhance Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) contact tracing, active case search as well as disease and death surveillance in Kween and Kapchorwa districts. The Motorcycles worth USD 32,000 will eventually be used to strengthen the community disease surveillance system in the two districts when the current outbreak response activities come to an end.

15 November 2017:- WHO has been implementing the Emergency Response Plan since 20 October 2017 when the Ministry of Health officially declared the outbreak. WHO released US$ 624 000 from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) to rapidly respond which has proven to help contain the outbreak.

Kapchorwa 10th November 2017- Political leaders, civil servants, health workers and security officers from Kenya and Uganda have agreed to establish mechanisms to share disease surveillance data across districts and borders in order to prevent or control disease outbreaks.

Kween, 8th November, 2017:- The Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) response activities in Kween district eastern Uganda are now in full throttle despite initial scepticism from sections of the community. Association of the disease with witchcraft, poor information flow from the treatment centre to the community, inadequate logistics, terrain of the area and presence of few partners on ground were major challenges in the initial stages of the response.

Kween District, 4th November 2017 - As the Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) continues to unfold in Kween district, eastern Uganda, frontline health workers battling the outbreak have been urged to nurture local capacity to be able to respond to both the current and future outbreaks. 

The President of Uganda, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has highlighted the critical role communities play in managing and responding to disease outbreaks in Africa especially in resource-constrained settings. “Train communities to look out for these outbreaks because community participation is very important,” he said at the opening of the 4th High-level Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) meeting that was held in Kampala last week 

Following the confirmation of a case of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) in Kween district Eastern Uganda by Ministry of Health (MoH) and the activation of the National Response Team, the WHO Rapid Response team from the country office was able to reach the epicentre within 48 hours and is currently supporting national and district authorities to contain the outbreak. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) supported Uganda to design a harmonized, detailed and realistic road-map of activities to improve collaboration between animal health and the public health sector, in a three-day meeting convened at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala. The roadmap will enable Uganda to prevent, detect and respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks. The roadmap highlighted the importance of International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) and the role of WHO, on the mandate of the OIE.