The government of South Korea, under its agency the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), has conducted a midterm review of its five-year programme to strengthen health systems for quick detection and response to infectious diseases.
Speaking at a meeting attended by officials in the Ministry of Health and different public health facilities across the country, Dr Dongwoon Han, who heads Evaluation at KOFIH Uganda, said while this five-year programme is about to end, there are still gaps in reporting as the Ministry is not providing data to show exactly what has been achieved so far.
The eight-million-dollar programme started in 2022 and is scheduled to end in 2026, was among others supposed to expand and operationalise regional emergency operation centres, help with laboratory infrastructure development, train health workers and strengthen community health workforces, but according to Han, there’s currently little to show for it.
When this concern was put to officials in the Ministry of Health, they acknowledged that data collection and timely relaying have been a challenge, partly because of the fact that some health facilities are still relying on a paper-based system to report what disease conditions and outbreaks they register.
Dr Dansan Atim, a Senior Health Officer in the Epidemiology department of the Ministry of Health, noted that they need to migrate to entirely using digital systems if information is to be shared promptly.
Atim noted that despite reporting gaps, the ministry has generally performed well when it comes to the quick detection of outbreaks, citing the outbreak of anthrax in Mubende district, which was reported within one day, and the response was mounted in three days. He says the same speed was used to mount a response for Mpox when it was first reported in the country.
Dr Alex Riolexus Ario, the Director of the Uganda National Institute of Public Health, says that while the KOFIH programme is well-intentioned, pre-existing challenges in health facilities have prevented them from achieving the targets.
Citing limited human resources and the fact that some health facilities are stuck with the paper system, Ario recommends employing the latest technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, in the collection of data to guarantee accuracy. For many facilities currently, he says they have to rely on biostatisticians at district headquarters to share information on outbreaks and other infections.
The KOFIH Country Director, Dohoon Kim, said overall the capacity for Uganda to control infection has improved, with the biggest impact being seen in central Uganda, where notification and detection have been improving over the last three years has been improving since emergency operation centres are now swift with the availability of supplies for detection.
