A report published by the World Health Organisation-WHO and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund-UNICEF has highlighted that the aggressive marketing of breast-milk substitutes, especially through health professionals that parents trust for nutrition and health advice is a major barrier to improving newborn and child health worldwide.
According to the health ministry, the removal of the cases was a directive from President Yoweri Museveni. The WHO country representative says Uganda's move is okay as long as neighbouring countries are informed so that the discarded numbers can be added onto their country of origin
Since the respiratory disease emerged in central China in late December, health officials have raced to locate where and how the virus was first transmitted from its animal host to humans. It is however believed that a now-closed Wuhan city wholesale market played a role in the outbreak.
Describing the decision as regrettable, the head of the World Health Organization Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in due course, WHO’s performance in tackling this pandemic will be reviewed by WHO’s Member States and the independent bodies that are in place, to ensure transparency and accountability.
More than 1.5 billion children and young people have been affected by school closures worldwide. 15 million of these are in Uganda, where schools have been closed since March 18. Many of these are now online taking classes and socializing, a trend which is likely to continue for the next 21 days, after the extension of the lockdown.
Restrictions have already been relaxed in Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic, while Spain, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, allowed some nonessential workers to return to their jobs on Monday. However, even on the day they relaxed the restrictions Spain lost 517 people due to coronavirus disease.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti describes the decision taken by countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda as strong demonstrative measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday, the Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Diana Atwine said that since they have banned travels from high-risk countries, people who come into the country will have to cater for their costs of the quarantine even though it is a total quarantine.
Health officials say that they are moving the country's preparedness level from ordinary to advanced. During this advanced level, more travel bans are expected on countries with high COVID-19 cases.
According to WHO, they are worried about countries like Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe-located within East and Southern Africa getting hit by the disease because they have weak health systems already burdened with HIV
While cases in Africa increase and scientists race against time to produce a cure for COVID-19, many ordinary people in Uganda do not know what the disease is, how it spreads or how it can be prevented. For traders and vendors in downtown Kampala, the much talked about disease, is blank slate for them
Dr David Musoke, an environmental health expert at the Makerere School of Public Health says that it's very important for people to wash their hands as often as possible.
Prior to December 2019, when the first cases were registered in Wuhan-China, the current virus was unknown. Experts say that the disease has the same genetic makeup as SARS that emerged in 2002 and affected 8,000 people after spreading to 26 countries.
According to the ministry of health, the 22 were denied entry after they refused to adhere to self quarantine measures that would have them isolated for 14 days
Dr. Yonas T. Woldermariam says that for the first time ever, misinformation during a disease outbreak is forcing WHO to use funds meant to fight the disease and to stop wrong information from getting into the hands of unsuspecting public.
According to the ministry of health, the decision to stop the travel was made after government,WHO and CDC experts reviewed the evolution of the disease and what kind of risk it presented to Ugandans
