Health minister Aceng says Uganda still prone to Ebola

By Stephen Kalema

Uganda is still prone to Ebola because of its proximity to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which is experiencing an outbreak of the plague, Jane Ruth Aceng has said.

Aceng, Uganda’s Minister of Health said although DRC and Uganda have had this epidemic outbreak in the past, they have demonstrated timely response to avert Ebola including the latest episode.

She was speaking during a cross border meeting on Ebola outbreak in Goma, at Hotel Linda in DRC on Wednesday.

On August 1, 2018, DRC’s Ministry of Health reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in North Kivu Province. Probable cases have been reported in 14 health zones of North Kivu and Ituri provinces and so far 755 total cases including 245 deaths have been registered.

To prevent this epidemic out break from spreading across Uganda’s border, Uganda’s Ministry of Health, with the help of World Health Organisation, have so far vaccinated over 1,400 health workers and frontline workers working at high risk districts at the border of DRC and Uganda such Ntoroko, Kasese, Bundibugyo.

However, Aceng said although Uganda has not confirmed any Ebola case, the scale of the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo presents an intimidating risk of spread beyond the current epicenter due to the technical challenges related to case suppression and large numbers of people who cross daily the common border for several socio-economic reasons some of which include; trade, health services, education and cultural relationships and refugee influx. The resultant risk of transmission could be within DRC, across borders or refugees hosting communities.

According to Aceng, Uganda has had five outbreaks mostly along its western regions close to the DRC. However, all the outbreaks were controlled at source with very limited spread beyond the localities of original incidence.

“Districts in Uganda have been categorised by risk into three groups to guide planning and response as High, Moderate and Low risk districts. Basing on response strategies and capacities,” said Aceng.

Aceng said that to stop Ebola from ‘entering’ Uganda, six pillars are being developed to help in this struggle; coordination and resource mobilisation, surveillance and laboratory, case management and IPC, risk communication and mobilisation, mental health and psycho-social support, ring vaccination with, therapeutics and research, emergency logistics.