The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently handed over state-of-the-art equipment to Entebbe international airport, aimed at enhancing public health awareness among users of the facility.
The six pieces of 55-inch TV screens and three advertising kiosks were formally presented by the IOM Uganda Chief of Mission, Mr. Sanusi Tejan Savage, to the airport General Manager, Mr. Emmanuel Barungi.  Also present were senior officials from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) and the Ministry of Health
The equipment, valued at UGX 68 million , was procured through a project funded by USAID, the United States Agency for International Development.  The equipment is to be positioned strategically around the airport to broadcast health awareness campaigns.
In his remarks, Chief of Mission Savage said the equipment was only the latest package of IOM’s support to Uganda’s ports of entry. He referenced the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 Ebola outbreaks, when IOM handed over thermos scanners and other items for surveillance and infection prevention and control.
“This work falls under IOM’s Health, Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) framework, whose goal is to improve prevention, detection and response to the spread of existing and future health threats along the mobility continuum and its spaces of vulnerability,” Mr. Savage said.
In September 2022, an outbreak of ‘Ebola Sudan’ was declared in the central Uganda districts of Kassanda and Mubende, and by the time it was declared over in January 2023, it had killed 55 people, out of the 142 confirmed cases. Another 22 people died from suspected (but not confirmed) infection with the haemorrhagic fever. IOM Uganda was part of the response that supported Uganda to contain the outbreak, with funding from USAID through the World Health Organization (WHO). After the epidemic ended in January, continued to support the ministry of Health to increase capacities to cope with future epidemic. The equipment handed over by Mr. Savage was among the last fruits from that project.
The Entebbe airport General Manager, Mr. Barungi, requested that as the aviation sector in Uganda grows, some of the equipment could be used at busy airports like Arua and Kabale. In response, Mr. Savage said this was a matter for the UCAA and the ministry of Health’s Surveillance department and IOM would not object either way. 
The Assistant Commissioner for Surveillance, Dr Michael Mwanga, commended IOM and USAID for the support to his department.  He said that besides COVID-19 and Ebola, the country has also been registering cases of Monkey pox along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as other epidemics. It was, therefore, important that the public get well-packaged messages to help prevent disease.
This was echoed by the representative of the Director General of Health Services, Mr. Emmanuel Ainebyoona, who said that during major outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, one the most important part of the response is risk communication.

__________________________________
For more information / media enquiries, please contact IOM Uganda Public Information Officer, Richard M Kavuma. Email: rmkavuma@iom.int and  ugandapiu@iom.int  | Tel +256 312 263 210 / +256 772 709 917.