Uganda is to benefit from the 5 million US-dollar emergency fund provided by the World Health Organization to fight the spread of Ebola in the country and the neighboring countries.
This was revealed in an emergency high-level ministerial meeting held at Speak Resort Munyonyo on Wednesday bringing together officials from East Africa as well as West Africa with experience in handling Ebola.
The meeting aimed at enhancing cross boarder collaboration for emergency preparedness and response in fighting the spread of the Ebola virus.
Fiona Braka, the Coordinator of Emergency Operations at the World Health Organization, said that the fund is to help Uganda and neighboring countries to mitigate the risk of contracting the deadly virus, saying that it’s important to address these risks so that countries are well-prepared to manage the importation of the virus.
She adds part of the money has been released and two million dollars are going directly to Uganda and three million dollars is allocated to the other neighboring countries to beef up their capacity in terms of readiness and preparedness.
Dr. Ahmed Ouma, the acting director of the Africa Center for Disease Control, said that there is a need for African countries to work together across borders to handle public health emergencies.
“Many times in Africa when we have emergencies we wait for partners to come and support we are saying that we must change that, the public and private sectors we have resources that we must use to initiate responses that way we set our priority and any partner that may come may be fitting in the priorities that we have set,” Dr. Ouma said.
He said that they have come up with a new public health order policy that was passed in April 2021 for Africans to manage their emergencies without waiting on donations.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, said that the ministry received trial drugs, which are monoclonal antibodies and they used them to treat the health workers that were infected by the virus and were discharged Tuesday.
She also said that Uganda is awaiting the arrival of 471 doses of two vaccines from England and the USA to be used for the Sudan Ebola Virus.
Minister Aceng added that the vaccines are now in their phase two and three trials after passing the safety phase and they will be used in the area with the current Ebola outbreak next week.
Since 2000, Uganda has experienced repeated outbreaks of Ebola Viral disease in the districts of Gulu, Bundibugyo in 2007, Luwero in 2011, Kibale in July 2012, and Luwero in November 2012, and now the outbreak of Ebola Sudan this year.
