Mpox outbreak response in Mbarara, Buvuma and Buikwe

Uganda confirmed the first two cases of Mpox on 24 July 2024 in Kasese district and the Ministry of Health formally declared an outbreak on 2 August 2024.

Since then, the disease has spread inland to several other districts. The National Task Force and the Incident Management Team have been activated, while the National Mpox Preparedness and Response Plan was developed and disseminated.

Although response activities have been initiated in the affected districts and countrywide, the interventions have largely remained sub-optimal, and challenges abound.

Some of the key gaps include irregular coordination meetings and sub-pillar functions, limited resources and logistics for field deployment and operations, inconsistent flow of information from districts to national level due to weak response structures at operational level.

Several of the confirmed cases have not been comprehensively investigated and contacts listed.

As a result, the source of infection, transmission dynamics and risk and exposure factors for many confirmed cases are not well understood.

To that effect, the Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, the National Rapid Response Teams (NRRT) was deployed to the affected districts to ramp up ongoing response measures and control the current mpox outbreak in the country.