Grania Nakazibwe the woman Member of Parliament of Mubende also a member on the Parliament Health Committee has raised three key requests to the government as it declared the country free from Ebola Sudan Virus that evaded in September 2022.
On January 11th, Uganda after completing surveillance of 42 days with no new case, was declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization after controlling the pandemic in just 10 weeks.
“We request the government to release all those prisoners that violated the lockdown directives, to upgrade Maduddu health facility to a Health center 4 and to also meet all the payments of the health workers that were on the frontline” Gloria articulated.
Nakazibwe made this call at Mayors Gardens in Mubende on the event that was organized by the government to declare as Uganda is now Ebola free.
The President on 15th October, issued strict directives that included a full mobilization of Kampala city into a response mode, a curfew in Mubende and Kassanda starting from 7pm to 6am in the morning, suspension of public transport, prohibiting movements in and out of the two districts, and suspension of seasonal markets amongst others for 21 days. According to various Police reports, hundreds of locals including bodaboda riders were arrested by Police officers in this period of up to 60 days.
The NRM cadre also added that since Maduddu health center was in lime light in this pandemic and catered for the first Ebola victim, there is need to upgrade it to a health center 4 such that its well equipped with facilities that can cater for the community in various health issues.
In her remarks, Ruth Aceng the Minister of health noted that while fighting this outbreak from September, they were joined by 56 partners in the fight but the 6 partners dropped out towards the end because their activities had come to an end.
“The 29 partners who have accounted so far, collected over USD81 million and the expenditure of USD39 million was used in this outbreak. We agreed that the partners who were on ground will clear their existing debts and the un spent balance will be used in different priorities”. Aceng explained.
The Accountability Forum that was held at Serena Hotel in Kampala on Tuesday agreed that the Un spent balance will be used in interventions like supporting Research in vaccines, diagnostics, ecological studies and Ebola virus disease risk mapping, supporting Ebola virus disease capacity building within the East African region, comprehensive supporting of the survivor program and also establishing multi disciplinary clinical response teams.
This 9 point program also included interventions like supporting the implementation of the recovery plans and integration of lessons learnt into existing plans, supporting programs for the National Community Health Strategy and also strengthening the laboratory capacity especially field laboratories and once again all partners will seat to approve the interventions and soon will be implemented.
This 7th Ebola outbreak in the country ended when 142 cases were confirmed, only 22 probable cases, 55 deaths and 87 recoveries but intense surveillance continues for the next 90 days.
The Ministry also noted that in partnership with the Korean Federation a new Ebola Operating Center will be established in Mubende and this will help in continuous monitoring of the district.
