Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni dismissed rumors of his death as a result of the COVID-19 virus, saying he is on his fifth day of the infection and is feeling much better. 

“Greetings. It is now day 5 of my corona-status. Last night, I slept very well up to the 10th hour of the night,” the president stated on his official Twitter account on Sunday night.

“Initially, on Wednesday, there was also some mild muscle soreness, typical of the usual flu,” he stated, adding that the muscle soreness has now gone, besides feeling better from the throat infection.

Rumors circulated on the social media platform in recent days that Museveni had been transferred to intensive care and later died owing to COVID-19 complications.

However, in the Twitter message, he dismissed all such rumors, stating that he is currently in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 and following the country's standard operating procedures (SOPs).

On June 7, the president tested positive for the virus, and the next day he took a "forced leave" from his office.

“However, we carried out corona tests today and they were still positive. We shall wait for a few more days and check again. I remain in self-isolation at Nakasero. Again, I advise all of you to get fully vaccinated against corona and the elderly should get the boosters,” he added.

The World Health Organization deemed COVID-19 to be no longer a global health emergency last month but cautioned that the virus will continue to mutate. - Hamza Kyeyune, Anadolu Agency

Bujumbura – Burundi’s health authorities today launched the country’s first national polio vaccination campaign since 2011, targeting nearly 3 million children under seven years of age following the first alerts of circulating poliovirus type 2 in more than three decades.

Supported by World Health Organization and other Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, the country has prepared more than 3.7 million doses of nOPV2 vaccine for administration over the next four days. The action is in response to 13 detections of circulating variant poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) reported so far in 2023.

Three cases were confirmed in March, including a four-year-old boy in Isale district in western Burundi who had never been vaccinated against polio, and two other children who were his contacts. Additionally, five samples from environmental surveillance of wastewater confirmed the presence of circulating poliovirus type 2.

“The detection of the virus continues to constitute a national public health emergency, and subsequent vaccination rounds can be expected to follow in the coming months in order to protect Burundi’s children,” said Dr Sylvie Nzeyimana, Burundi’s Minister of Health.

WHO supports health authorities in reaching every last child with vaccination against preventable diseases. In Burundi WHO has supported the training of more than 12 000 vaccinators and conducted over 700 sessions for training of trainers at all levels, from community to national level.

Dr Désiré Nolna, Burundi’s country coordinator for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, stressed the need to implement quality campaigns in a timely manner, while fully operationalizing a consistent environmental surveillance system to enable early detection and adequate sample collection.

Further epidemiological investigations is ongoing, including risk assessments to determine the extent of the outbreak.

WHO experts in the field are also supporting Burundi with additional sample collection to further bolster polio surveillance, while assessing the possibility of opening new environmental surveillance sites for early detection of silently circulating poliovirus.

Circulating poliovirus type 2 is the most prevalent form of polio in Africa, accounting for most of polio outbreaks in the region, with more than 400 cases reported in 14 countries in 2022. Circulating poliovirus type 2 infection can occur when the weakened strain of the virus contained in the oral polio vaccine circulates among under-immunized populations for long periods. - World Health Organization

KAMPALA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Uganda will ensure that everyone in the country has equitable access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care after the president signed an anti-homosexuality bill into law, Minister of Health Ruth Aceng said.

Aceng made the comment late on Monday following concerns by global organizations that the new law may have negatively impact on access to HIV/AIDS services.

"Uganda will ensure that prevention programs for HIV Epidemic control remain accessible to those that need them in a non discriminatory manner observing principles of confidentiality and equity," Aceng tweeted.

"Our previous efforts brought down new HIV infections from 100,000 in 2015 to 17,000 in 2022. Similarly HIV prevalence has declined from 18 percent to 5.5 percent now," the minister said, noting that with 1.3 million people on treatment out of the estimated 1.43 million people living with HIV, the country is on course to HIV epidemic control.

Aceng said despite concerns by the global organizations, Uganda remains committed to ending AIDS as a public health challenge by 2030.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed the contentious anti-homosexuality bill into law, the Speaker of Parliament said here Monday.

Museveni assented to the bill that imposes death and life-imprisonment sentences for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in jail for promotion and funding of same-sex activities and according to it, a suspect convicted of attempted aggravated homosexuality faces 14 years in prison. - Xinhua