Including refugees in disease elimination: challenges observed from a sleeping sickness programme in Uganda.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ensuring equity between forcibly-displaced and host area populations is a key challenge for global elimination programmes. We studied Uganda's response to the recent refugee influx from South Sudan to identify key governance and operational lessons for national sleeping sickness programmes working with displaced populations today. A refugee policy which favours integration of primary healthcare services for refugee and host populations and the availability of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to detect sleeping sickness at this health system level makes Uganda well-placed to include refugees in sleeping sickness surveillance.

Methods

Using ethnographic observations of coordination meetings, review of programme data, interviews with sleeping sickness and refugee author

SUBMITTER: Palmer JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5710113 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature