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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA has intensified measures to respond to the Ebola outbreak in the city.
Over the weekend, the Ministry of Health announced a rise in the number of infections within the city center. All these infections were contacts of previous Ebola victims who had traveled to Kampala from districts of Mubende and Kassanda.
Dr. Alex Ndyabakira, the City Incident Commander says that the authority has activated their response teams in the five divisions of Kampala to respond to any alert that is reported from communities, follow up on contacts reported from communities or as communicated by the Ministry of Health.
He says the authority has established a team of 40 people per division and this is comprised of clinicians ready to evacuate confirmed and suspected cases, and lab technicians to immediately collect samples from suspected cases and hand them over to the Ministry of Health for testing. Dr. Nyabakira says the team also constitutes social workers with whom the health workers use to talk to suspected cases, confirmed and the general community that they work with when following up on cases and contacts.
Dr. Ndyabakira says that these teams shall also work closely with the local leadership and Village health teams during following up on alerts, contact tracing and general sensitization of communities on how to avoid transmission and where to report in case there is a suspected case in the area.
At every health center, there is a focal person appointed to head the Ebola response team and report to the main City response team at City Hall. Dr. Ndyabakira also says that all health facilities under KCCA have been ordered to designate a place where they can temporarily hold suspected Ebola patients before transferring them to the main isolation centers at Mulago hospital, Naguru hospital and Entebbe hospital.
He made it clear that they have also taken health workers through refresher training on how to deal with suspected or confirmed cases in their possession and also in infection prevention and controls. He says they also have ambulances in place to transport cases from communities or health centers to the Isolation centers established under the Ministry of Health.
When government confirmed the outbreak of Ebola in Mubende district on 20th September 2022, KCCA had four ambulances that had earlier been given to them by the Ministry of Health. These were designated for Ebola response in case the city registered a case. But when President Museveni locked down Mubende and Kassanda on 15th October 2022, Dr. Ndyabakira says KCCA handed over the four ambulances to help not only with the Ebola patients and suspects but also any other patients who might need transport amidst restricted movement due to the lockdown. He however adds that the authority procured seven more ambulances which they can use to beef their Ebola response when the need arises.
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