Ministry of Health has revealed that Uganda needs USD 7.5 million (28 billion Shillings) to tackle the current Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Kasese district.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona the ministry spokesperson says funding is the biggest component of Uganda’s Ebola response as the country remains on high alert with teams of experts patrolling communities until both Uganda and the neighboring Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) are declared Ebola-free. DRC has been battling Ebola since August 2018.
According to Ainebyoona, the money is needed to cater for case management, surveillance, laboratory research, risk communication and community mobilization in addition to logistics like supplies and transport.
Earlier, the Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng had hinted that government spent 10 billion Shillings by December 2018 and 18 billion Shillings in total for the whole preparedness phase, long before the first case of Ebola was confirmed within the Ugandan territory.
Dr. Aceng said that the expenditure was necessary because even if none of the nine previous outbreaks of Ebola in DRC had spiraled to Uganda, the World Health Organization had assessed it as a very high risk this time considering that the outbreak happened at the border with Uganda.
She added that this money was spent on, surveillance, screening, training and vaccinating of health workers among others.
