The Ministry of Health (MOH) has started a process of absorbing nineteen field epidemiologists who have just graduated from a United States funded training programme of field epidemiologists and laboratory experts.
The Director Public Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr Daniel Kyabayinze has noted that while these specialists graduated just last week, government had already started a validation exercise to have those who had been working in critical areas and employed by different NGOs absorbed by government.
Under the five -year $2.3billion Memorandum of Understanding signed in December, Kyabayinze says they committed to a clause which requires the government of Uganda to absorb all frontline healthcare workers trained under programmes funded by the United States.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started funding this two- year fellowship programme run by the National Institute of Public Health in 2015 and up to 130 experts who deal with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of emerging and re-emerging diseases and other factors relating to health have been trained.
According to Dr Ario Alex Riolexus, the Director of the institute, the unit cost of training one of such professionals is high estimated at around USD 100,000.
Now, Kyabayinze says, not all the 130 so far trained are employed within government as some have since moved to work elsewhere in the world. He however, notes that it will take government up to twenty years to obtain the sufficient number of such specialists.
Meanwhile, while speaking at the graduation ceremony on Thursday, US Ambassador to Uganda William W. Popp said that they are currently assessing the impact that the preceding cohorts have had in making Uganda, the United States and the world safer. The Ambassador said the US is taking off this year as they mark their 250th anniversary to assess areas where they have had the most impactful collaborations.
He further commented on the changes in the public health cooperation between the US and Uganda saying that Uganda has committed to increase public health financing including in areas of surveillance, human resource and health systems building.
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