The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has lauded government partners for their support in the current Ebola preparedness response in Uganda and urged them to support the government to build systems for future disease outbreak responses.
This was at a meeting held at the Serena Hotel in Kampala, where partners in the Ebola preparedness response briefed Ministry of Health (MoH) leadership and donors about their work to ensure that Uganda is prepared to manage an EVD outbreak, should there be one.
Dr Aceng further appreciated the support from partners and donors including DFID, US Government, Ireland Government and Chinese Government for the financial support in the preparedness response. She recognized the development partners on ground for their support to MoH in the response.
The Ebola preparedness response in Uganda is a multifaceted one with many partners and donors supporting the MoH to ensure that the country is safe from an Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak.
This is owing to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the epicentre of the outbreak is close to the Ugandan border in the west.
Resources have thus been given to various partners to support the Ministry of Health to implement the EVD preparedness response activities.
The partners include Center for Disease Control (CDC), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Uganda Red Cross Society, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Food Program (WFP).
On their part, WHO highlighted the current activities it is undertaking in the high-risk districts of Uganda. These include supporting overall coordination of the preparedness response where WHO has deployed staff to support the MoH to coordinate the different response activities. In addition, WHO is currently supporting the vaccination of frontline health workers in the 20 high-risk districts, where an additional 3000 doses were donated by WHO. The exercise is still ongoing.
For more information please visit https://www.afro.who.int