The Government has dispatched a team of experts to tackle the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) and Rift Valley Fever (RVF) that have hit the cattle corridor districts of Nakaseke, Luwero, Sembabule, Kyegegwa, Lyantonde, Mubende and Gomba.
According to the statement released in Kampala Tuesday, the team of experts from the ministries of health and agriculture that includes epidemiologists, clinicians, veterinarians, communicators and laboratory specialists, will support the districts to set up appropriate response activities, including the spraying of ticks and other insects that is ongoing in the selected districts within the cattle corridor.
Further, the statement indicates that since August 2017, when suspected cases were reported, four cases of the CCHF and five cases of the RVF have been confirmed, with the latest cases being reported on the 19th of January 2018 in Nakaseke and Buikwe, respectively.
Further, the statement adds that one person from Nakaseke district has died of CCHF while three people from Buikwe, Kiboga and Mityana, have died of RVF.
‘An inter-ministerial committee, coordinated by the Ministry of Health has been undertaking measures’, the statement reads in part. It says government is in the process to assess other districts even as there is an ongoing dissemination of reading materials in the local dialect and English for easy sensitization of the public.
The statement says cooked meat and boiled milk do not transmit the above diseases but has urged the handlers of these products to use personal protective gear, committing further that the inter- ministerial committee will keep the public informed of any new development.
