Govt launches disease detection centre in Arua

Health and district leaders across West Nile have hailed a move by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to construct a surveillance centre to detect epidemic outbreaks in the sub-region.

Speaking at the commissioning on Wednesday, Dr Charles Ayume, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Health Committee, said the regional public health emergency operations centre’s early warning system will enable them carry out surveillance, collect and analyse data to inform planning on how to manage epidemics.

“We are just next to South Sudan and DR Congo, where there is a lot of cross-border movement. Their healthcare system is not robust like ours and we don’t know what takes place on that side. We have recently received information of an outbreak of Bubonic plague and this means districts at the border are prepared,”  Dr Ayume said.

Patients from the two neighbouring countries have for decades been referred to hospitals in West Nile Sub-region for treatment of various diseases. 

Mr Jackson Atima, the Arua Central Division legislator, said the sub-region has a big disease burden because of the movement of traders, adding that centre will help them get ahead of strange diseases.

The State Minister for Health, Ms Hanifa Kawooya, commissioned the centre at Arua Regional Referral Hospital.It will serve 12 districts in West Nile.

“You should own this centre because it is yours so that locals can benefit from it. Use it for research on various diseases so that there is early management of cases,” Ms Kawooya said.

The sub-region has in the past grappled with infectious diseases such as  Ebola. 
Dr Sam Orach, the executive director of Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau, in a book published in 2002 on plague outbreaks wrote that “due to logistic and communications problems, diagnoses of plague in Nebbi District have remained mainly clinical.”  The book called for early diagnosis and treatment.

Disease outbreaks 
According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control Regional Office in Arua, a string of anthrax cases were reported in animals (12) and humans (14) from 2017 to 2020. At least 96 cases of Rift Valley Fever have also been reported in animals with the solitary case in a human registered in February 2018. 

Additionally, Ebola (three) and Yellow Fever (four) cases have been reported in various districts in the sub-region.

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