US trains Uganda in disaster management

By Francis Kagolo        
                                                         
The US government has started training Ugandan officials on the best epidemics preparedness and management techniques.

 Organised by the disaster preparedness programme of the US Africa Command, the four-day training has attracted officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), health ministry, Police and the army.

 "Uganda government has excellent professionals in disaster management, but every country, whether US or Uganda, can always do better with increased training on how to handle the disasters, and that's what we are planning to do," said Col. John Jordan, the senior disaster management contingency planner at the US Africa Command.

 He was addressing the press ahead of the training.  

Uganda has suffered a ring of disastrous disease outbreaks including Ebola which killed 17 people in Kibaale. Seven other people died in Kabale district due to Marburg, another hemorrhagic fever.

In Luweero, four people died of Ebola in November, 2012. The nodding syndrome in northern Uganda has killed scores of children and left others destitute.  

Jordan said the worst disasters likely to continue in Africa and require adequate preparedness include epidemics/pandemics, droughts and flooding.

Consequently, he said the training would focus on handling epidemics like Ebola, Marburg and Influenza (flu).

The Police last year developed a national pandemic plan for the entire country with support from the US Africa Command.

Jordan said they would review the plan during the training and also support the military to develop their own.

"The plans need to focus more on influenza because, unlike Ebola, it is going to spread worldwide and has the potential to kill more than 100,000 people," he noted.

"The potential catastrophe from pandemic influenza is big. It is not a question of if it will happen; it is the question of when the pandemic will happen."

The Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) revealed this week that a deadly type of influenza, formerly predominant in Asia, had hit Uganda affecting a good number of people. Known as Influenza B/Yamagata, the viral disease used to circulate mainly in Southeast Asia.

Influenza is part of the lower respiratory infections which are the third leading cause of death in the world, after heart diseases and stroke, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO says the disease killed 3.2 million people globally in 2011. An Influenza outbreak killed between 40 million and 50 million Spaniards in 1918-1919.   

The assistant commissioner for disaster preparedness, Gerald Menha, lauded US for offering to uplift Uganda's capacity in managing disasters at a time it mattered most.

"The Government is committed to ensuring the safety of its people by putting in place formidable structures against pandemics,' he said.