Jimmy Ogwal

Jimmy Ogwal

BStat (Mak), MSc (Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics)(Mak), PGD M&E (UMI), Field Epidemiology Fellow (PHFP) +256772 352905 jogwal@musph.ac.ug

Host Site: Kampala Capital City Authority

Host Mentors:  Dr. David Serukka, Dr. Okello Oyen Daniel

Academic Mentor:   Dr. Achilles Katamba, MakCHS

ABOUT THE FELLOW

Jimmy Ogwal holdsa Bachelor of Statistics and Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Makerere University. He additionally obtained a post graduate diploma in monitoring and evaluation from Uganda Management Institute. Prior to joining the Public Health Fellowship Program, Jimmy worked as Senior Biostatistician in the Uganda Ministry of Health.

His roles were majorly data management, analysis and dissemination; disease surveillance, capacity building of health workers on data management, design and implement operational research. He was involved in planning, monitoring and evaluation of health services. Before that, Jimmy worked as abiostatistician in Apac District Local Government where he was in charge of data management, analysis and dissemination.

He participated in aassessment of alternative family planning distribution methods by Ministry of Health in selected districts in Uganda and was a principal Investigator on the study Prevalence and Factors associated with sputum smear negative Tuberculosis among adults in Kawempe division-Kampala.

He supervisedfood security and nutrition survey by World Food Programme in the Districts of Apac, Dokolo, Oyam and Amolatar in 2008. Jimmy coordinated Lots Quality Assurance Survey (LQAS) in conjunction with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the Northern districts of Uganda. He also workedas a research assistant with Wilsken Agencies. Jimmy was hosted at Kampala Capital City Authority during the Fellowship.

  Achievements at the host site

• Developed standard operating procedure for weekly epidemiological report and trained health workers from KCCA and implementing partners on weekly epidemiological reporting
• Built capacity of data staff on District Health Information System. The reporting rate for HMIS 105 improved from xx to 80% and weekly epidemiological reporting to 50% from 25%
• Coordinated the data use training for KCCA health workers
• Participated in writing the concept for the cluster approach in improving health care service deliveries and management of disease outbreaks in KCCA
• Coordinated several meetings in Mulago National Referral Hospital in a bid to improve the data reporting. This led to a coordinated data collection, reporting and completeness in Mulago Hospital.
• Supervised and validated data on typhoid in health facilities, especially private in Kampala
• Performed weekly analysis of epidemiological data for KCCA to detect possible outbreaks.

Program-specific achievements

• Descriptive analysis report on utilization Elimination of Mother To Chile Transmission of HIV in Kampala
• Conducted several outbreak investigations; among others measles in Bugiri and Kampala, epilepsy in Ibanda and Cholera in Bulambuli
• Published two articles in epidemiological bulletin (Evaluation of surveillance system in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement and Cluster approach in control of disease outbreak in Kampala)
• Quality improvement on the newborn health in Lira Regional Referral Hospital using a tool called Birth Weight and Age-at-Death Boxes for an Intervention and Evaluation System (BABIES)
• Published an article in Newspaper (Why you should promptly report any suspected disease outbreak)
• Submitted one manuscript titled “Evaluation of Surveillance System in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement for publication Conducted evaluation of surveillance system in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement camp.

Summary of Epidemiological Study: 

 Title:  Evaluation of the Surveillance System in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement: Yumbe District, Uganda, March 2017

Introduction:   Between Aug 2016 and March 2017, 779,662 refugees who fled South Sudan due to political conflicts were settled in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, Yumbe District, Uganda. This influx of refugees stressed the public health system leading to poor sanitation, insufficient safe drinking water, and an increased risk of disease outbreaks and malnutrition. We evaluated the disease surveillance system in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement to identify strengths and weaknesses, document gaps and recommend improvement measures.

Methods:     We evaluated the surveillance system using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems. We interviewed key stakeholders, health-care providers and Village Health Teams using semi-structured questionnaires in Yumbe District. We reviewed surveillance tools for availability and quality. We collected data on attributes of the surveillance system.

Results:    Between July 2016 and March 2017, 5 patients received treatment for suspected measles and there were 64 suspected cases of cholera and 2 deaths, but only 4 were notified as per Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDRS) guidelines. 4% of health workers were trained on Ministry of Health standard data collection tools (Registers), 12% of health facilities had treatment guidelines. 19% of facilities analyzed their data and 22% health workers have ever collected data. The attributes for a high quality surveillance system were not exhibited at Bidibidi Settlement surveillance system. The health care providers are using parallel registers to capture data.

Conclusion and Recommendations:     The surveillance system in Bidibidi settlement was found not to meet the required standards for health surveillance system’s attributes and health care providers who use the surveillance system were not aware of the importance of a functional surveillance system and it’s purposes. IDSR guidelines are not being implemented satisfactorily in the settlement.

We recommended harmonization of surveillance tools and building the capacity of health care providers on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response.