Uganda News

Kampala - The Ministry of Health and health development partners in Uganda, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have launched the country's Ebola response plan highlighting planned activities, priority needs and gaps.

Bringing together the country's health diplomatic corps, the high-level meeting discussed the current status of the outbreak, the country's preparedness to respond and contain the outbreak, and outlined the priorities and needs of the Ebola response as outlined in the national response plan.

The leadership of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other health partners visited the Ebola-affected areas of Mubende district on 24 September to assess the health situation, understand the gaps and strengthen the response to the Ebola outbreak in the country.

The delegation was led by the Minister of Health, Honorable Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, and accompanied by the WHO Officer-in-Charge, Dr. Bayo Fatunmbi, representatives of various health development organizations and implementing partners, and three members of the Ugandan Parliament.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Uganda’s Ministry of Health, has commenced a five-day training for 29 emergency responders from five African countries. Held from 15th to 19th August 2022 the training aims to build regional capacity to respond to the unpredictable nature of outbreaks of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in the region.

The World Health Organization has provided the Ugandan Ministry of Health with a set of 2,400 tests to strengthen the country's response to Monkeypox through rapid laboratory identification of cases.

These kits are among the first Monkeypox laboratory tools received in the country and will be used by the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) to begin testing for the disease.

The Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) trained over 70 emergency responders, including managers, national trainers, and rapid response teams, on rapid deployment and operational response to public health emergencies at the Nile Village Hotel in Jinja.

The Ministry of Health has received an additional 2,800 oxygen cylinders and 48,172,700 syringes from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany to support the continued fight against COVID-19 and other health complications in the country.

The Ministry of Health in Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO), and members of the Civil Society conducted a series of activities in Entebbe municipality in Uganda to commemorate World No Tobacco Day 2022 under the theme “Protect the Environment”.

Activities included awareness-raising among over 4,750,000 community members on the negative impact of tobacco on health and the environment; Cleaning up tobacco Cigarette butts in the Entebbe market and Mass screening for some diseases caused by Tobacco, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

Op-ed - The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. Tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year, and around 1.2 million of these deaths are due to exposure to second-hand smoke. This is far greater compare to deaths due to COVID-19 and it has been going on for decades.