Kampala 28th April 2016 - The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in Uganda hosted a WHO/Center for Disease Control (CDC) meeting to discuss on-going WHO/CDC collaborative work.

The meeting was attended by WHO Country office staff led by the Country Representative as well as CDC staff led by their Country Director Dr. Steven Wiersma and Dr. Michael St. Louis, the CDC/Atlanta Regional Director for Africa.

The discussions focused on the collaborative agenda which includes Laboratory Strengthening, Strategic Information Strengthening, Health systems strengthening and support Uganda towards attainment of the International Health Regulations core capacities.

The WHO Uganda country Representative Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu who was also the chair of the meeting thanked CDC for the continued collaboration with WHO and said that a lot of value is added to the organization’s work through collaboration. He further said WHO is committed to providing technical support to the Ministry of Health (MoH) and partners

Dr. Steven Wiersma, also welcomed the meeting and urged for regular interagency interactions and briefings in order to keep stakeholders informed of the collaborative work. He thanked WHO for the excellent work in Health system strengthening, especially in the area of Laboratory . He however decried the understaffing at newly constructed and equipped National Public Health Laboratory in Butabika. He acknowledged the comparative advantage for WHO in strengthening the laboratory hub network and laboratory quality improvement towards accreditation. The work being done includes strengthening the capacity of the laboratory hub network for sample referral through training in safe and appropriate specimen collection, packaging and transportation to reference centers for diagnosis. 

Through the WHO/CDC collaboration, a lot of work has also been done on strengthening Strategic Information generation and use. WHO working with MoH has trained district health workers on use of electronic Health Information Management Systems (eHMIS) platforms; the District Health Information System (DHIS2) and mTRAC which primarily transforms paper based Health Management Information System (HMIS) reports, and using mobile phones and computers, digitizes and speeds up the flow of information to all levels. These eHMIS platforms are key to monitoring delivery of health services and integrated disease surveillance and response.

Regarding health systems strengthening, previous collaboration focused on strengthening health financing in the areas of synthesizing local evidence on Performance Based Financing and generation of National Health Accounts. In year 3, WHO and CDC will support the Ministry of Health to review and propose harmonization of regional approaches (Community Health Departments in Regional Referral Hospitals and the Regional Performance Monitoring Teams) in order to improve monitoring performance of health services, disease surveillance and other public health functions. CDC committed to secondment of a Health Systems Advisor within WCO to support this area of work

In the area of disease surveillance, outbreak preparedness and response, CDC noted that although Uganda has demonstrated capacity for timely detection and response to disease outbreaks, more attention needs to be paid to addressing the risk factors and prevention of recurring outbreaks such as cholera. It was noted that there is an ongoing outbreak of cholera in Kenya and cross-border discussions need to be initiated. Dr. Wiersma welcomed WHO support towards the training of the fellows admitted into the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (FELTP) now training the second cohort. There is however need for the Ministry of Health to strengthen the Epidemiology and Surveillance Division of MoH so that the fellows receive appropriate mentorship in the field during an epidemic response. 

CDC and WHO committed to working closer together and hold regular meetings in order to keep track of progress.

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For more information, please contact:

Mwebembezi Edmond, Public Information Officer, Tel: +256 414 335569, Cell: +256 782 962674

Email: mwebembezie [at] who.int (mwebembezie[at]who[dot]int )

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Below:

01. CDC and WHO staff during the meeting

02. Dr. Alemu making a submission during the meeting