Ebola: Besigye roots for robust healthcare emergency plan

Oct 31, 2022

He argues that lockdowns without stipulated strategic planning only damage the country’s economy and are not recommended given the crisis people are faced with

Dr Kiiza Besigye says lockdowns are not recommended given the economic crisis people are faced with.

Ivan Tsebeni
Journalist @New Vision

The former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president, Dr Kiiza Besigye, has implored the government to develop a healthcare emergency plan as an effort to not only manage the Ebola virus disease, but also prevent other related outbreaks.

In the plan, Besigye suggests that the government should emphasise three areas of strengthening preventive systems thereby empowering and equipping village health teams (VHTs).

Other areas, he said, include strengthening the early detection systems and beefing up the response mechanisms.

Besigye derived his talk from the allegations that have been awash on social media that it took the country three weeks to detect the Ebola outbreak in the districts of Mubende and Kassanda.

“By the time the outbreak was detected, the country had already lost many lives of both the locals and health workers. Such incidents should never happen again,” he said.

Besigye was speaking during a Sunday evening talk show on Baba FM.

Damage to economy

He remarked that lockdowns without stipulated strategic planning only damage the country’s economy and lead to many deaths, saying it (lockdown) is not recommended given the economic crisis people are faced with.

 

“I have heard that vehicles including boda-bodas are barred from transporting people in the affected districts. This is very absurd, especially when the Government has not secured ambulances as an alternative,” he said.

Stats

Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of October 26, there have been 115 confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD), including 32 deaths (case fatality rate: 28%). Among these, at least 11 healthcare workers were infected, of whom four died.

On October 15, 2022, President Yoweri Museveni sent the ground zero of the latest outbreak Mubende along with neighbouring Kassanda, into a 21-day lockdown.

Two days later, after two positive cases in Kampala were traced back to Mubende, the president “directed a full mobilisation of Kampala city into a response mode.

Health minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, on Wednesday confirmed that as many as 170 contacts are being traced.

There are reports that the number of contacts could be as high as 300.

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