Your Excellency Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja,
Your Excellency Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, Minister of Health,
Dr Ahmed Ogwell,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank Your Excellency the Prime Minister and the Government of Uganda for organizing today's event together with the Africa CDC, and for your leadership in responding to the current outbreak of Ebola in your country, the first in a decade.
Although the outbreak is troubling, it is not unexpected.
Because of Uganda's previous experience with Ebola, and its proximity to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has recurring outbreaks, WHO and the Ministry of Health have been working together to prepare for an outbreak for some time.
WHO's Executive Director for Emergencies, Dr Mike Ryan, is there with you, and as my sister Dr Moeti said, we have experts on the ground from headquarters, our Regional Office and our country office, working with Uganda's experienced Ebola control teams to reinforce diagnosis, treatment and preventive measures.
So far, WHO has released 2 million US dollars from our Contingency Fund for Emergencies, and we're working with our partners to support the Ministry of Health by sending additional specialists, supplies, and resources.
To support readiness in neighbouring countries, WHO has released an additional 3 million dollars from the Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
Unfortunately, the Ebola vaccines that have been so effective in controlling recent outbreaks in DRC are not effective against the type of ebolavirus which is responsible for the current outbreak in Uganda.
Several vaccines are in various stages of development against this virus, two of which could begin clinical trials in Uganda in the coming weeks, pending regulatory and ethics approvals from the Ugandan government.
It is absolutely critical to integrate strong research in outbreak response activities.
Even as we work to stop this outbreak as quickly as possible, we must learn from it so we can prevent and respond to future outbreaks even more quickly.
Meanwhile, we have to use the tools we have:
Surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing, quality care, and engaging with communities about the risks they face, and how to avoid them.
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We have learnt many lessons from previous outbreaks:
The importance of having a strategic response plan;
Decentralizing operations to the lowest level;
Using evidence-based interventions;
Having a transparent, performance-based approach;
And crucially, listening to community concerns, which is key to any outbreak response.
We are asking families to make huge sacrifices: isolation; quarantine; changes to the way to interact with each other; changes in the way people mourn and bury the dead.
So community engagement and community trust are critical.
A "one size fits all" approach to community engagement isn't effective.
Each community is unique.
WHO and our partners have listened to this feedback and worked to place local workers in our response teams, and Uganda has a lot of experience in this.
Our primary focus now is to rapidly control and contain this outbreak to protect neighbouring districts, as well as neighbouring countries.
We urge neighbouring countries to increase their readiness to respond rapidly and efficiently, if needed.
Once again, Your Excellency Prime Minister Nabbanja and Your Excellency Minister Aceng, thank you for your leadership.
WHO is fully committed to supporting you, together with our partners, to save lives and end this outbreak.
I thank you.
