The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal to raise 11.2 million dollars to help fund Uganda’s response to an Ebola outbreak that has killed two people.
This came after Uganda’s health budget was strained by U.S. cuts to foreign aid.
Uganda declared the outbreak of the highly infectious and often fatal haemorrhagic disease in January in the capital Kampala after the death of a male nurse at the East African country’s sole national referral hospital.
A second Ebola patient, a four-year-old child, died last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, citing the country’s health ministry.
Uganda’s 10 confirmed cases had been linked to Ebola’s Sudan strain which did not have an approved vaccine.
In a statement sent out on Tuesday, the UN said the funds would cover the Ebola response from March to May in seven high-risk districts.
“The goal is to rapidly contain the outbreak and address its impact on public health as well as associated social-economic life of affected people,’’ said Kasonde Mwinga, Uganda representative for the World Health Organisation (WHO), a UN agency.
Uganda had traditionally relied heavily on the U.S. for its health sector funding.
During the last Ebola outbreak in 2022-2023, the United States provided 34 million dollars to fund case management, surveillance, diagnostics, laboratories, infection prevention and control among other activities, according to a U.S. Embassy report.
However, President Donald Trump’s administration imposed an aid freeze and U.S. funding to Uganda’s health sector has been slashed, hitting the country’s public health budget, according to government officials.
Uganda’s Health Ministry spokesperson, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ebola symptoms include fever, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue. (Reuters/NAN)
