Publications by authors named "Milton-Makoba Wetaka"
Background: In June 2019, landslides and floods in Bududa district, eastern Uganda, claimed lives and led to a cholera outbreak. The affected communities had inadequate access to clean water and sanitation.
Objective: To share the experience of controlling a cholera outbreak in Bududa district, after landslides and floods.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared an Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu in August 2018. By June 2019, the outbreak had spread to 26 health zones in northeastern DRC, causing >2,000 reported cases and >1,000 deaths. On June 10, 2019, three members of a Congolese family with EVD-like symptoms traveled to western Uganda's Kasese District to seek medical care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntervention To Stop Transmission of Imported Pneumonic Plague - Uganda, 2019.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
March 2020
Plague, an acute zoonosis caused by Yersinia pestis, is endemic in the West Nile region of northwestern Uganda and neighboring northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (1-4). The illness manifests in multiple clinical forms, including bubonic and pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is rare, rapidly fatal, and transmissible from person to person via respiratory droplets.
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- Uganda faces increased vulnerability to epidemics due to factors like proximity to the Congo Basin, climate change, globalization, and refugee influx, making public health events a significant challenge for global health security.
- A comprehensive multi-hazard plan was created to improve emergency preparedness and response by profiling risks, identifying preparedness gaps, and leveraging a multidisciplinary team and strategic tools to analyze and manage risks.
- Key public health capabilities such as coordination, epidemiology, and risk communication were established, categorizing various health threats by risk levels, with a focus on enhancing operational responses for high and very high-risk situations.
Uganda is currently implementing the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), aiming at accelerating compliance to the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005). To assess progress toward compliance, a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) was conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on this evaluation, we present the process and lessons learned.
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