African Red Cross SGs in Uganda to plan for Ebola outbreak response strategies

By Ben Musanje

21^st Aug 2023

Secretary Generals of Red Cross Societies meet in Kampala to discuss Cross Border Collaboration in Health and Management of Ebola Virus Disease.

Uganda Red Cross Society is hosting the Cross border collaboration in Health and Ebola Virus Disease preparedness high level meeting.

The two days’ meeting is intended to develop a collective road map for cross border collaboration on epidemic preparedness, Identify technical tools and guidelines to facilitate peer to peer support, Develop a National society health technical working group to lead on cross border collaboration during epidemics.

Secretary Generals of Red Cross Societies Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, DRC, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Madagascar and Comoros.

Speaking to the journalists during the event at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Robert Kwesiga, the Secretary General of Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) says there is a need to put responsibilities to local societies and have rightful human resource to enable encounter any pandemic and epidemic outbreak that may occur in the country.

Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the Director Health Services and also Public Health National Covid-19 Vaccination Commander in the Ministry of Health says that as a government, they do have well structured systems that complement with collaborators to control outbreaks once they happen.

He says that they already have in place seven different pillars in which the ministry responds to the epidemics and pandemics once they outbreak in the country including community engagement.

In January 2023, Uganda declared the end of a nearly four-month Ebola outbreak that it briefly struggled to contain but was then able to swiftly bring under control despite the absence of a proven vaccine against the viral strain in question.

Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said during a ceremony to mark the outbreak’s end that this was Uganda’s eighth Ebola outbreak since 2000, when the country recorded its first and most deadly one that killed more than half of the 425 people it infected.

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