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Research paper
The Politics of the Second Vaccine: Debates Surrounding Ebola Vaccine Trials in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Two experimental Ebola vaccines were deployed during the tenth Ebola epidemic (2018–20) in the DRC. International debate ensued about the value and ethics of testing a second vaccine in an epidemic context. This article examines how this debate unfolded among…
Research paper
Lessons learned from implementation of a national hotline for Ebola virus disease emergency preparedness in South Sudan
The authors conducted a descriptive analysis on quantitative data from call logs reflecting 22 weeks of South Sudan’s Ebola alert hotline, along with thematic coding of qualitative data collected routinely. The hotline was set up during the preparedness phase of…
Research paper
Assessment of infection prevention and control readiness for Ebola virus and other diseases outbreaks in a humanitarian crisis setting: a cross-sectional study of health facilities in six high-risk States of South Sudan
This study uses data from a structured questionnaire to assess the readiness and capacity of 151 health facilities across six states in Couth Sudan. It found that facilities most lacked a coordination committee structure (13.19%), guidelines and SOPs (21.85%), vector…
Research paper
Analyses of the performance of the Ebola virus disease alert management system in South Sudan: August 2018 to November 2019
This research paper analysed the performance of the Ebola alert management system, established in response to the Ebola outbreak in DRC in August 2018. EVD alerts reported in South Sudan in 2018-19 were anlaysed using quantitative and qualitative data. Strengths…
Policy document
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Preparedness and Readiness Update for South Sudan Update: #002 (13 November 2022)
Government of South Sudan/WHO-produced weekly summary of changes in the situation regarding EVD case incidence, public health preparedness and readiness, challenges/gaps and recommendations.
Policy document
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Preparedness and Readiness Update for South Sudan Update: #004 (27 November 2022)
Government of South Sudan/WHO-produced weekly summary of changes in the situation regarding EVD case incidence, public health preparedness and readiness, challenges/gaps and recommendations.
Policy document
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Preparedness and Readiness Update for South Sudan Update: #003
Government of South Sudan/WHO-produced weekly summary of changes in the situation regarding EVD case incidence, public health preparedness and readiness, challenges/gaps and recommendations.
Background report
Community Approaches to Epidemic Management in South Sudan: Lessons from local healthcare systems in tackling COVID-19
Recognising the long experience and knowledge South Sudanese people have of infectious diseases and their responses, this research documents the various community infectious disease management strategies employed in the Yei, Juba, Wau, Malakal, Aweil West and Rubkona areas. Such responses…
Blog
The many faces of the COVID-19 mask in Eastern DRC
The introduction of the mask during the COVID-19 outbreak changed daily life in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and took many faces. From state repression in the city of Goma, to fear of the unknown in rural areas, the mask…
Blog
Flattening the curve of Uganda’s coronavirus
The logic of flattening the curve should be treated differently where there are few health services to be overwhelmed, and people need to work in the day to eat at night. This blog post describes how lockdown in Uganda deserves…
Blog
Do COVID-19 conspiracy theories challenge public health delivery?
The Ugandan government’s severe response to Covid-19 has encouraged endless debate over the virus’ origins, in the face of unclear global explanations. Conspiracy theories and rumours proliferate, especially in regions with no recorded infections. This blog post explores how local…
Blog
In Uganda memories of Ebola spur resistance to COVID-19 public health efforts
Responses to COVID-19 vary across Uganda, with northern regions seeing resistance to public health efforts to enforce quarantine. For some communities the location of isolation and treatment centres, in particular, has caused public outrage, reviving memories of the 2000 Ebola…
Blog
How do we measure the effectiveness of lockdown in Uganda against COVID-19?
In regions where state health systems are weak and premature death is common, it is possible for COVID-19 to have swept many parts of the world unnoticed, without the virus’ mass global awareness. This blog post reports from Uganda on…
Blog
Dispelling COVID-19 rumours at local levels in Pakwach, Uganda
Rumours can have significant consequences for how local communities engage their health systems, posing problems for epidemic containment which can rely on trust in state actors. This blog post examines rumours associated with COVID-19 in the Pakwach district of Uganda,…
Blog
Humanitarian diagnostics for sleeping sickness in Uganda
A key impetus for the invention of a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) for sleeping sickness (also known as human African trypanosomiasis or HAT) was the persuasive advocacy for better ‘field ready tools’ by medical humanitarian agencies such as Médecins Sans…
Blog
Why is there Need for Long-Term Investment in the Uganda Virus Research Institute, The Home of Zika?
In this post, the authors offer a grounded account of Zika virus, one in which its discovery is an entry point into a broader history of the UVRI and the people who worked there. In doing so, they combine autobiographical…
Blog
When ‘a People’s War’ Turns Against Them: Reflections on Uganda’s ‘War of the Wananchi’ against COVID-19
With the incumbent President facing a critical election in early 2021, the truths over COVID-19 in Uganda became highly contested, as measures announced in the name of the people against COVID-19 began to double as interventions against the spread of…
Blog
“Escaping from Quarantine” from Quarantined: My Ordeal in Uganda’s Covid-19 Isolation Centers
Ugandan intellectual and philosopher, Jimmy Spire Ssentongo has painted a behind-the-scenes picture of how the Ugandan state handled the coronavirus disease. While the Ugandan president praised self and staff for putting the coronavirus in check through the state’s isolation centres,…
Blog
The Logic of Contesting States During a Crisis: Revelations from Uganda’s COVID-19 Fight
This piece examines state legitimacy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. It examines various contestations to this legitimacy, such as the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) student strike. The strike reveals how state institutions condition(ed) public indifference with…
Research paper
‘When I die, let me be the last.’ Community health worker perspectives on past Ebola and Marburg outbreaks in Uganda
This paper describes findings from interviews with health workers from three outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg virus disease.
Research paper
Pandemics and soft power: HIV/AIDS and Uganda on the global stage
The COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 threatened years of effort by the Chinese authorities to extend its influence around the world. As with COVID-19, HIV/AIDS presented a fundamental threat not only to countries’ internal social stability and population health, but also…
Research paper
COVID-19, Public Authority and Enforcement
The securitization of health is not a new phenomenon. However, global responses to the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa reveal the extent to which epidemic preparedness and response is now shaped by geopolitical concerns. This commentary describes how enforcement…
Research paper
Challenges to Ebola preparedness during an ongoing outbreak: An analysis of borderland livelihoods and trust in Uganda
Ebola Virus Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was declared a public health emergency of international concern on July 17, 2019. The first case to cross the border into Uganda in June 2019 demonstrates the importance of better…
Research paper
Experiences of the one-health approach by the Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council and its secretariat in the control of zoonotic sleeping sickness in Uganda
Elimination of sleeping sickness from endemic countries like Uganda is key if the affected communities are to exploit the potential of the available human and livestock resources (production and productivity). Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, the parasite that causes acute sleeping sickness…
Research paper
COVID-19 and Its Related Stigma A Qualitative Study Among Survivors in Kampala, Uganda
COVID-19-related stigma is gradually becoming a global problem among COVID-19 survivors with deleterious effects on quality of life. However, this social problem has received little attention in research and policy. This study aimed at exploring the COVID-19-related stigma among survivors…
Research paper
Institutional vulnerabilities, COVID-19, resilience mechanisms and societal relationships in developing countries
COVID-19 pandemic challenges could be utilised as an opportunity to reform government institutions to develop resilience measures that would potentially meet contemporary and future challenges. This article highlights that the current approach of institutions has failed to meet societal need.…
Research paper
Who is watching? Refugee protection during a pandemic-responses from Uganda and South Africa
Reflecting on the first 6 months of the pandemic responses in terms of refugee protection, Uganda and South Africa have taken diverging pathways. South Africa used the pandemic to start building a border fence on the border with Zimbabwe, initially…
Research paper
Is we they? A cross-cultural study of responses to COVID-19 updates in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda
This article delineates the material relations, routines and sensorial responses inhabited by people in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. It grounds views on a discourse of behavioural change while exploring how Ugandans, Kenyans…
Research paper
Experiences of persons in COVID-19 institutional quarantine in Uganda: a qualitative study
Quarantine has been adopted as a key public health measure to support the control of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in many countries Uganda adopted institutional quarantine for individuals suspected of exposure to severe COVID-19 to be placed in institutions…
Research paper
Deadly secret: situating the unknowing and knowing of the source of the Ebola epidemic in Northern Uganda
This article critically examines the unknowing of the source of the Ebola epidemic in Northern Uganda, in 2000/1, by asking how this unknowing has been achieved and has shaped the disease situation. This article follows the author’s informants’ explanation that…
Research paper
Fieldwork through the Zoomiverse: Sensing Uganda in a Time of Immobility
With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, research collaborations that involved multiple sites or institutions were challenged by travel restrictions and the switch to online communication. This article is a reflection by two longtime collaborators, Richard Vokes and Gertrude Atukunda.…
Research paper
Hidden Tales of Ebola: Airing the Forgotten Voices of Ugandan “Ebola Nurses”
Uganda experienced three Ebola outbreaks between 2000 and 2012, the largest and most destructive occurred in the Gulu region in 2000. This outbreak occurred during the rainy season when malaria rates were highest, thus complicating the diagnosis. As the outbreak…
Research paper
Lives Interrupted: Navigating Hardship During COVID-19 Provides Lessons in Solidarity and Visibility for Mobile Young People in South Africa and Uganda
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended assumptions about livelihood security. The authors examine data from young women and men in South Africa and young female sex workers in Uganda to explore the inequalities and hardships experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and…
Background report
“This is your disease”: Dynamics of local authority and NGO responses to Covid-19 in South Sudan
Drawing on interviews and observations conducted in South Sudan in 2020-21, this report explores how South Sudanese NGOs and local government actors responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors argue that unfilled local government positions undermined the Covid response in…
Policy document
Uganda National Technical Guidelines for IDSR, Third Edition
Uganda Ministry of Health National Technical Guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response, Third Edition (September 2021). These official guidelines set out the Government of Uganda’s policies and strategy concerning public health surveillance, early warning and response.
Policy document
The Public Health Act, Uganda
The legal basis for public health state action, originally passed in 1935.
