Uganda hosts Global health conference

Oct 24, 2017

The GHSAC is an effort by nations, international organisations and civil society to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats

Uganda will be the first African country to host the Global Health Security Agenda Conference (GHSA) ministerial meeting, come October 25, according to a press release from Dr Ruth Aceng, the health minister.

This year, the conference which will be held under the theme Health Security for all: Engaging Communities, Non-Governmental Organisations and the Private Sector, will take place at Commonwealth Speke Resort, Munyonyo in Kampala.

Launched in February 2014 in the US, the GHSAC is an effort by nations, international organisations and civil society to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats.

"The primary goal of GHSA is to help countries build their capacity to contribute towards a world safe from infectious disease threats and to elevate global health security as a national and global priority," reads the press release.

Uganda was one of two countries chosen as Global Health Security (GHS) demonstration countries in 2013, the other being Vietnam. 

From the time Uganda became a member of GHSA, it has registered a number of successes in line with the 11 action packages agreed upon by the member states, including, but not limited to scaling up immunisation coverage for all antigens, construction of the National Health Laboratory Services complex in Butabika and establishment of an Emergency Operations Centre to co-ordinate information flow and response activities for all public health threats.

"Uganda has served as a regional model for numerous African countries since the launch of the GHSA in 2014.

"It has provided leadership in advancing the GHSA as exemplified by the technical support it provided to the West Africa Ebola epidemic using materials developed in Uganda including training, guidelines, standard operating procedures, and reporting tools," Aceng said.

She added that the Government is hosting this high-level ministerial meeting as a platform for member states to share and learn from each other's experiences in implementing the GHSA action packages, as well as in integrating GHS actions into relevant national and sub national programmes in a sustainable and all-inclusive way.

 

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