Government urges public to remain calm and vigilant amidst the influenza outbreak

While addressing the nation at Uganda media centre the Minister revealed that there is an outbreak on  upper respiratory tract infections in schools .

The state Minister for Education and Sports Joyce Moricu Kaducu said Uganda is still on high alert to avert any potential resurgence of Covid-19 however  the public should remain calm and vigilant in the unbridled  of influenza.

According to the Minister, the Health Ministry received an alert on February 27th from a certain school in Wakiso district which indicated several students that were presenting with symptoms similar to what was thought to be covid19.

‘The Health Ministry teams reacted quickly and collected samples from the 431 individuals who had these symptoms and took them for testing’’ she added.

Hon Kaducu also noted that all the samples collected in that period turned out negative for covid19 but out of the 198 the samples collected, 58 of them turned out positive for influenza A and 2 tested positive for influenza B.

The symptoms of this outbreak include fever, cough, headache, flue and joint pain and its more in younger learners compared to older learners and in most cases the illness is between mild and moderate with no signs of severe respiratory illness.

It’s with this available evidence that the Ministries of Health and Education confirmed the outbreak of influenza A but still working hand in hand to further respond to other clusters of other clusters of upper respiratory tract infections in schools to ensure no missed covid19 diagnosis.

Kaducu appealed to schools authorities to strongly implement adherence to standard operating procedures such as hand hygiene in classes and using face masks, avoiding overcrowding in schools hence utilizing the double swift system to reduce congestion, ensuring that students are kept hydrated by taking plenty of water and also encouraging administrators to make use of the sick bay other than sending students in the boarding section home.

The state Minister also reminded school administrations that the Ministry’s stand lately is not close any learning institution in the prevention of flue transmission but cautioned that if circumstances become extreme it will be done with the approval of the two Ministries.

According to Dr. Jessica Nsugwa the commissioner reproduction and child health in the Health Ministry, this outbreak is mainly caused by the changing of weather conditions at the moment but called upon Ugandans to stay calm and not to worry a lot due to this influenza A and B.

Other officials in the Health Ministry including Col. Kyobe Henry the incident commander Ministry of Health, the senior Public relations Officer Mr. Ainebyona Emmanuel amongst others were also present.