Application Deadline: The deadline to apply for a UK GREAT Scholarship varies according to each institution. For details on individual institutions’ deadlines, please see the institution page.
About the UK GREAT Scholarships: GREAT Scholarships offers numerous scholarships from UK universities, across a variety of subjects for students from the countries below. Each scholarship is worth a minimum of £10,000 towards tuition fees for a one-year postgraduate course.
Each scholarship is jointly funded by the UK government’s GREAT Britain Campaign and the British Council with participating UK higher education institutions.
Eligible Countries: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Vietnam & Thailand
To be Taken at (Country): UK
Number of Awards: Numerous
Value of UK GREAT Scholarships: Each scholarship is worth a minimum of £10,000 towards tuition fees for a one-year postgraduate course.
How to Apply for UK GREAT Scholarships: Filter by your country to find a GREAT Scholarship at a UK university.
It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.
Application Deadline: Application Deadlines depend on the candidate’s chosen programme (See ‘How to Apply’ link below); deadlines generally Between January and April 2023.
Asia: Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Palestinian Territories, Vietnam
Latin America: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru
To be taken at (country): Belgium
Accepted Subject Areas: Only the following English-taught courses at Belgian Flemish universities or university colleges are eligible for scholarships:
One-year master programmes
Master of Human Settlements – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Development Evaluation and Management – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Governance and Development – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Globalization and Development – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Two-year programmes
Master of Science in Food Technology – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Science in Marine and Lacustrine Science and Management – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Aquaculture (IMAQUA) – Deadline for applications: 1 March 2023
Master of Epidemiology – Deadline for applications: 28th Feb 2023
Master of Agro-and Environmental Nematology – Deadline 1st Feb 2023!
Master of Rural Development – Deadline online application: 21 February 2023– deadline hard copies: 28 Feb 2023
Master of Statistics – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Water Resources Engineering – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Sustainable Development – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
Master of Transportation Sciences – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2023
About the Award: VLIR-UOS awards scholarships to students from developing countries to study for a master or training programme in Flanders, Belgium. VLIR-UOS funds and facilitates academic cooperation and exchange between higher education institutions in Flanders (Belgium) and developing countries, aiming to build capacity, knowledge and experience for sustainable development.
The master programmes focus on specific problems of developing countries. These are designed to enable graduates to share and apply acquired knowledge in the home institution and country. In the shorter training programmes the focus is on transferring skills rather than knowledge, thus creating opportunities for cooperation and networking.
Selection Criteria: The following criteria will be taken into account for the selection of candidates for a scholarship:
Motivation. The candidate unable to convincingly motivate his application, is unlikely to be selected for a scholarship.
Professional experience: Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a higher possibility of implementing and/or transferring the newly gained knowledge upon return to the home country.
Gender. In case of two equally qualified candidates of different sexes, preference will be given to the female candidate.
Regional balance. The selection commission tries to ensure that 50% of a programme’s scholarships are granted to candidates from Sub-Saharan Africa, provided a sufficient number of qualifying candidates from this region.
Social background. In case of two equally qualified candidates, preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate that they belong to a disadvantaged group or area within their country or an ethnic or social minority group, especially when these candidates can provide proof of leadership potential.
Previously awarded scholarships: Preference will be given to candidates who have never received a scholarship to study in a developed country (bachelor or master).
Eligibility: You can only apply for a scholarship if you meet the following requisites.
Fungibility with other VLIR-UOS funding: A scholarship within the VLIR-UOS scholarship programme is not compatible with financial support within an IUC- or TEAM-project. Candidates working in a university where such projects are being organized, should submit a declaration of the project leader stating that the department where the candidate is employed is not involved in the project.
Age: The maximum age for an ICP candidate is 35 years for an initial masters and 40 years for an advanced masters. The maximum age for an ITP candidate is 45 years. The candidate cannot succeed this age on January 1 of the intake year.
Nationality and Country of Residence: A candidate should be a national and resident of one of the 31 countries of the VLIR-UOS country list for scholarships (not necessarily the same country) at the time of application.
Professional background and experience: VLIR-UOS gives priority to candidates employed in academic institutions, research institutes, governments, social economy or NGO’s, or aim a career in one of these sectors. However, also candidates employed in the profit sector (ICP and ITP) or newly graduated candidates without any work experience (ICP) can be eligible for the scholarship. The ITP candidate should have relevant professional experience and a support letter confirming (re)integration in a professional context where the acquired knowledge and skills will be immediately applicable.
Former VLIR-UOS scholarship applications and previously awarded scholarships: A candidate can only submit one VLIR-UOS scholarship application per year, irrespective of the scholarship type. Consequently, a candidate can only be selected for one VLIR-UOS scholarship per year.
The ICP candidate has never received a scholarship from the Belgian government to attend a master programme or equivalent or was never enrolled in a Flemish higher education institution to attend a master programme or equivalent before January 1 of the intake year
Number of Awardees: VLIR-UOS will award up to 180 scholarships.
Value of Scholarship: The scholarship covers ALL related expenses (full cost).
Duration of Scholarship: The master programmes will last for one or two academic years.
How to Apply:
To apply for a scholarship, you first need to apply for the Master programme.
To apply for the Masters programme, visit the website of the Master programme of your interest. Follow the guidelines for application for the programme as mentioned on its website.
In the programme application, you can mention whether you wish to apply for a scholarship. In case you do, the programme coordinator forwards your application to VLIR-UOS.
Applications submitted by the candidates to VLIR-UOS directly will not be considered!
Photograph Source: Petty Officer 2nd Class Markus Castaneda – Public Domain
In early December 2022, Japan’s Self-Defense Force joined the U.S. armed forces for Resolute Dragon 2022, which the U.S. Marines call the “largest bilateral training exercise of the year.” Major General Jay Bargeron of the U.S. 3rd Marine Division said at the start of the exercise that the United States is “ready to fight and win if called upon.”
Resolute Dragon 2022 followed the resumption in September of trilateral military drills by Japan, South Korea, and the United States off the Korean peninsula; these drills had been suspended as the former South Korean government attempted a policy of rapprochement with North Korea.
These military maneuvers take place in the context of heightened tension between the United States and China, with the most recent U.S. National Security Strategy identifying China as the “only competitor” of the United States in the world and therefore in need of being constrained by the United States and its allies (which, in the region, are Japan and South Korea).
This U.S. posture comes despite repeated denials by China—including by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on November 1, 2022—that it will “never seek hegemony or engage in expansionism.” These military exercises, therefore, place Japan center-stage in the New Cold War being prosecuted by the United States against China.
Article 9
The Constitution of Japan (1947) forbids the country from building up an aggressive military force. Two years after Article 9 was inserted into the Constitution at the urging of the U.S. Occupation, the Chinese Revolution succeeded and the United States began to reassess the disarmament of Japan.
Discussions about the revocation of Article 9 began at the start of the Korean War in 1950, with the U.S. government putting pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida to build up the army and militarize the National Police Reserve; in fact, the Ashida Amendment to Article 9 weakened Japan’s commitment to demilitarization and left open the door to full-scale rearmament.
Public opinion in Japan is against the formal removal of Article 9. Nonetheless, Japan has continued to build up its military capacity. In the 2021 budget, Japan added $7 billion (7.3%) to spend $54.1 billion on its military, “the highest annual increase since 1972,” notes the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
In September 2022, Japan’s Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that his country would “radically strengthen the defense capabilities we need….To protect Japan, it’s important for us to have not only hardware such as aircrafts and ships, but also enough ammunition for them.” Japan has indicated that it would increase its military budget by 11% a year from now till 2024.
In December, Japan will release a new National Security Strategy, the first since 2014. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the Financial Times, “We will be fully prepared to respond to any possible scenario in east Asia to protect the lives and livelihoods of our people.” It appears that Japan is rushing into a conflict with China, its largest trading partner.
Polish president, Andrzej Duda, aspires to (3) nuclear power plants from Westinghouse and US nuclear weapons stationed on Polish soil. (Photo: Grzegorz Jakubowski/Wikimedia Commons)
Congratulations must go to Poland — and to US vice president, Kamala Harris, and US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm for brokering the deal — for its commitment to purchase a triad of American nuclear lemons.
With breathtaking myopia, the Polish government has signed a deal to partner with the US company, Westinghouse, in the construction of three nuclear reactors in Poland.
Apparently, everyone concerned is happy to ignore the fact that Westinghouse was bankrupted by its disastrous nuclear projects in South Carolina and Georgia. The former was canceled mid-construction and the latter, at Plant Vogtle, is now years behind schedule and well beyond its originally predicted 2016 start-up date, with ever-ballooning cost over-runs that have now topped $30 billion.
Also overlooked was that former Westinghouse Electric Company Senior Vice President, Jeffrey A. Benjamin, was charged with 16 felony counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, and causing a publicly-traded company to keep a false record, over the company’s handling of its now canceled V.C. Summer 2-reactor project in South Carolina.
The official reason that long-shelved plans to build nuclear reactors were suddenly revived is that the war in Ukraine has caused energy shortages in heavily fossil fuel-dependent Poland. But, tellingly, another reason given was Poland’s “lack of immediate renewable substitutes”.
Like France with its nuclear power monopoly, Poland’s reliance on coal and gas stifled renewable energy development. Now there is nowhere else to turn. France is similarly stranded and is importing fossil fuel energy and even reopening closed coal plants.
The backward turn by France in climate mitigation was effectively caused by prioritizing nuclear power for so many decades. Added to that, its aging nuclear reactor fleet is now breaking down with remarkable alacrity — at various times recently more than half of all French reactors have been out of operation. It’s a perfect demonstration of why the nuclear choice is a rash and unreliable one, even without addressing all the inherent dangers and waste issues.
The Polish decision to partner with a bankrupt company that has a track record of failure to deliver on time or on budget, as well as criminal activity, certainly seems like a bizarre choice. So perhaps there is another agenda afoot here?
Poland’s unhappy history of invasion, occupation and shifting boundaries puts the country in a uniquely vulnerable position. Once behind the Iron Curtain and a member of the Warsaw Pact, Poland is now an enthusiastic member of NATO and outspokenly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Its multiple shared borders include Ukraine as well as Russian ally, Belarus.
In announcing the Westinghouse contract with Poland, the U.S. State Department called it “a watershed moment in advancing European energy security”.
Polish government spokesman, Piotr Müller, echoed this when he said: “Nuclear energy will be an important element of Poland’s energy security”.
The International Energy Agency defines energy security as “the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price”. But, more revealingly, it describes electricity security thus:
“Variable renewable generation has already surged over the past decade, driven by cost reductions and favorable policy environments, a trend that is set to continue and even accelerate in line with climate change objectives. Meanwhile, conventional power plants, notably those using coal, nuclear and hydro, are stagnating or in decline.” [emphasis added]
The Westinghouse Plant Vogtle reactors are the nuclear power poster child for massive delays and obscene cost overruns. (Photo: NRC)
Poland won’t get energy security from three Westinghouse reactors. It probably won’t even get the reactors. What it will get, however, is junior membership in the Nuclear Club. In possession of nuclear materials, technology, personnel and know-how, it will join other aspirational nations developing nuclear power, not because they need it or can even afford it, but because it delivers some sort of absurd prestige. Not quite a member of the Big Nine — the actual nuclear weapon states — Poland will at least arrive on the doorstep.
In early October, President Andrzej Duda, even said that he had asked to have US nuclear weapons stationed on Polish territory, although the US government denied receiving any such request. None of this is coincidence or unconnected.
The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, now supported by a majority of the world’s countries, works hard to stigmatize nuclear weapons. We need to do the same for nuclear power. Otherwise it serves as the nuclear drawbridge that is never raised.
The vote to strike by 300,000 UK nurses is a powerful show of opposition to entrenched low pay and appalling working conditions. It gives expression to a broader determination of workers throughout the National Health Service (NHS) to fight.
Nurses delivered the largest ballot by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the union’s 106-year history.
Despite anti-strike laws requiring a 50 percent turnout to allow strikes to proceed, nursing staff at 176 out of 311 NHS organisations voted for industrial action. Nearly half the trusts in England reached the threshold. All NHS employees in Northern Ireland and Scotland met the threshold and all except one trust in Wales.
A National Health Service worker protests over pay in Bournemouth as part of demonstrations around the UK in August 2020. The placard reads "We are not angels or heroes: We are professionals that deserve a professional pay". [Photo: WSWS]
The RCN ballot paper called for a pay deal of inflation plus five percent, against the Conservative government’s fixed sum of just £1,400. For newly qualified nurses, this is approximately 5.5 percent, and for most other around 4 percent. Inflation is over 12 percent and rising.
Nurses are already £6,000 worse off on average, in real terms pay, than in 2010. An experienced nurse’s salary has fallen by at least 20 percent in real terms since 2010.
According to analysis published this month by the London Economics consultancy an experienced nurse in 2022-23 is being paid the same amount for 5 days’ work as for 4 days’ work in 2010-11.
The nurses’ fight involves the very future of public health care. Years of budget cuts and privatisation have collapsed the NHS, leaving it unable to provide proper care. In August, for the first time ever in England, the NHS waiting list for routine operations breached 7 million. Almost 390,000 patients have been forced to wait over a year for treatment.
Staff numbers have collapsed, meaning nurses bear an intolerable workload, threatening patient safety. In 2021, 25,000 nursing staff left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.
The number of vacant positions for registered nurses in England increased to 46,828 between April and June of 2022—up from 38,814 in the same period in 2021. In London, with a population of over 9 million, a staggering 15 percent of nursing posts are unfilled.
Bed capacity has been severely eroded, with 40,000 fewer beds available in England than in 2009.
The onslaught against NHS workers is summed up by the fact that hundreds perished from COVID during the pandemic, as they worked on the front line while the government allowed the virus to let rip. By May 2021, over 1,500 health and social care workers had died of COVID , including 639 working-age healthcare employees.
The fact that so many workers in England did not vote is an indictment of the role of the RCN and other health unions over years in sabotaging a fight against terrible pay and conditions in the NHS.
If the strike is to be won, or even to go ahead at all, independent rank-and-file committees must be built to lead the struggle. Left in the hands of the RCN apparatus, it will be defeated.
For the vast majority of its history, until 1995, the RCN did not even allow its members to strike. But ever since, the experience of hundreds of thousands of workers with this union is that it will not wage a fight. The strike ballot in the current dispute—due to open on September 15—was delayed for weeks immediately following the death of the queen that month “out of respect” for the monarch.
In 2018, the RCN and 13 other health unions, including the largest public sector union, Unison, reached a pay deal with the Tory government, selling a miserly 6.5 percent pay “increase” as “the best deal in eight years” and bombarding members with misleading information to secure acceptance.
As soon as the real impact of the deal was expressed in their pay packets, health workers rebelled. RCN members called for an Extraordinary General Meeting and overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence “in the current leadership of the Royal College of Nursing”, calling for them to “stand down”.
The leadership Council was forced to step down in September that year, but with no alternative leadership the despised union functionaries were able to exploit the widespread disengagement of members and secure re-election. These bureaucrats are responsible for the disaster now facing RCN members.
Last year the health sector unions organised nothing after workers in the GMB, Unite and Unison voted by huge majorities to reject the government’s insulting 3 percent pay offer. RCN members voted by 91.7 percent in England to reject, and by 93.9 percent in Wales.
Every union bureaucrat, whether nominally “left” or “right”, plays the same role in suppressing the class struggle. They feel the same dread as the employers when presented with a mandate to strike, as a movement of the working class threatens their cozy relationship with the bosses and their comfortable lifestyles.
National Health Service workers and their supporters among 250,000 people protesting in defence of the NHS in London in 2017. [Photo: WSWS]
The NHS workforce of over 1 million is a powerful battalion of the working class, which enjoys widespread support for their struggle. Over 400,000 NHS staff in Unison—the largest NHS union—and others in different health unions are also balloting for action. Were they to be mobilised in a joint offensive, in alliance with hundreds of thousands of other workers in the rail, postal and other sectors, they would be able to defeat not only to attempts to hold down their pay and worsen conditions, but a government agenda intent on privatising the NHS, and transferring over £150 billion in welfare state spending to the military budget.
But at the first opportunity the RCN will move to sell out the nurses and negotiate a rotten deal with the government.
This has already taken place in Scotland where Unison negotiated a below inflation deal that the health unions nationally want to emulate. Last month the union suspended its strike ballot of 50,000 NHS members to recommend a Scottish National Party government offer of just £2,200 a year. Following that deal, Unison general secretary Christine McAnea declared, “Strikes across the NHS this winter are not inevitable.”
Following Wednesday’s RCN strike vote announcement, the union’s General Secretary Pat Cullen declared, “While we plan our strike action, next week’s budget is the UK government's opportunity to signal a new direction with serious investment. Across the country, politicians have the power to stop this now and at any point.”
This is not what the Tories are about. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who is tasked by the financial markets to carry out tens of billions in spending cuts in what will be a scorched earth budget this month, was the health secretary in 2016 when, in collaboration with the British Medical Association, the Tories defeated a national strike of 50,000 junior doctors and imposed an inferior contract.
Nurses and workers throughout the NHS must not be led to another hideous defeat.
Two and a half weeks after Giorgia Meloni came to power in Italy, the basic lines of her ultra-right government’s policies are becoming apparent. The new Italian government is continuing NATO’s war policy and the pro-business policies of her predecessor Mario Draghi. This is combined with unrestrained refugee-baiting and draconian attacks on democratic rights.
Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meet in Sharm el-Sheikh [Photo by governo.it / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0]
In her first government statement, the leader of the fascist Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) made an unqualified commitment to the European Union and NATO. “Italy is fully part of Europe and the Western world” and would “not slow down or sabotage” European integration, Meloni assured. Italy would “continue to be a reliable partner of NATO” in the Ukraine war and would stand firmly “by the side of the Ukrainian people who were attacked by the Russian Federation.”
Meloni’s first trip abroad was to Brussels, where she was warmly received by the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She is currently at the World Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where she is meeting with old and new political friends who are predominantly on the right.
Full of pride, she posted a picture on her Twitter account showing her with the Butcher of Cairo, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. “Wonderful to meet @RishiSunak,” she wrote after meeting the new British prime minister. “A great opportunity to renew our friendship, strengthen the transatlantic bond and reaffirm our willingness to tackle together the important challenges ahead.”
“I am delighted to see my friend @P_Fiala again,” she reported an hour later. “Our cooperation is key to meeting the difficult challenges of our time and standing up for our shared values.” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala is a member of the right-wing conservative ODS. In between, Meloni had met “His Majesty King Abdullah II and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Al Hussein” and praised the “longstanding roots” of the “friendship between Italy and Jordan.” She also had a friendly conversation with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
At the end of last week, the new government presented its first budget. “Meloni continues the Draghi course,” cheered the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), which otherwise never tires of criticising Italian fiscal policy. Despite the economic crisis and record inflation, new government debt is to fall from 5.6 percent of gross domestic product this year to 4.5 percent in 2023 and 3.7 percent in 2024. In 2021, it was still 7.2 percent. This requires massive cuts in social, health and education spending.
Her government only wants to spend an additional 30 billion euros by the end of next year to provide relief to companies and households from rising energy costs. All other additional expenditure must be financed by savings in the same department, as Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti (Lega) stressed.
To suppress working class and youth resistance to these attacks, the Meloni government is establishing a police state and mobilising the right-wing dregs of society through ruthless attacks on refugees.
Barely in power, it closed Italian ports to rescue ships from aid organisations. At the end of last week, hundreds of refugees were held up in catastrophic conditions on overcrowded ships off the Italian coast.
At the end of the week, the government allowed two ships to enter Italian ports. But only sick people and minors were allowed to disembark, healthy adults had to stay on board. The Meloni government takes the view that countries like Germany, under whose flag the ships sail, must take in the refugees.
With these illegal methods, the Meloni government is trying to completely prevent maritime rescues and criminalise the aid organisations involved.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who is close to the far-right Lega, has convened a “National Committee for Public Order and Security” consisting of top officials from the Interior Ministry, the Coast Guard, the Defence Staff, and the intelligence services. Its task is to keep refugees from Italy’s coasts. Piantedosi wants to set up reception camps on the other side of the Mediterranean, where refugees will be detained, and their personal data recorded. Only a fixed and controlled quota would then be allowed to come to Europe.
Here, too, Meloni and her interior minister are following the policy of previous governments and the European Union. The European border protection agency Frontex stopped rescuing people at sea years ago, illegally pushes migrants back and locks them up in inhumane camps on both sides of the European border. Since 2014, over 25,000 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean because of this policy, about four times the number of civilians the UN estimates have died so far in the Ukraine war.
But while the EU and Frontex try to hide their murderous actions, the Meloni government is trying to get as much publicity as possible. Like all right-wing and fascist movements, it uses terror against refugees to incite a right-wing mob atmosphere.
Although it tries to play this down, the government itself is teeming with open fascists. New cases are coming to light all the time.
Barely in office, the Meloni government also made its first preparations for the violent repression of political and social resistance. By decree it created a new criminal offence. Anyone who organises or participates in an “assembly” of more than fifty people by “invading the space of other people’s public and private properties or buildings” can be punished with imprisonment of between three and six years and a fine of up to 10,000 euros if the event “may result in a threat to public order, security or health.”
The pretext for the decree was a harmless rave party in a disused hall in Modena, which 3,500 young people had attended. When the owner of the hall filed a complaint because he feared it would collapse, the police sealed off the building. The ravers then left the area peacefully without any incidents.
If the decree “survives its way through parliament in its current version, the occupation of a school, university or factory in a strike and the occupation of abandoned buildings could also be punished,” comments the FAZ. “Many believe that with the ‘anti-rave norm’ the government had created a tool to suppress manifestations of collective dissent through pre-emptive repression and surveillance. In this reading, the illegal rave was merely a welcome opportunity.”
That resistance to the policies of the ruling class is growing is shown not only by recurrent strikes in the public and private sectors, but also by the mounting opposition to NATO’s war policy.
Last weekend, according to the organisers, more than 100,000 people took to the streets across Italy to demonstrate for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. More than 500 organisations, including trade unions, had called for the demonstrations.
But the same parties that have strengthened NATO in recent years, organised the social attacks on the working class and thus helped the right-wing to power, are now trying to misdirect and paralyse the growing opposition. Three former heads of government spoke at the rallies: Giuseppe Conte (Five Star) and Enrico Letta (Democrats) in Rome, and Matteo Renzi (Italia Viva) in Milan.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that as of November 9, 2022, the Ebola outbreak in Uganda with the Sudan virus is now at 156 infections (135 confirmed and 21 probable cases) with 62 patients having recovered. In all, eight districts have been affected. A total of 74 deaths have been reported (53 confirmed and 21 probable fatalities).
A man wearing protective clothing carries water to wash the interior of an ambulance used to transport suspected Ebola victims, in the town of Kassanda in Uganda Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. [AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda]
In an exclusive report published in the Telegraph this week, modeling projections from October 31 leaked to the press forecast that the Ebola outbreak in Uganda could reach 1,200 infections with more than 500 fatalities by April 2023 if efforts to contain the virus are not heeded.
If the projections hold their course, the current outbreak will surpass the 2000-2001 outbreak that killed 224 people. It would also be the third deadliest Ebola outbreak after the West African epidemic 2014-2016 that killed over 11,300 people and the outbreak in 2018-2022 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that led to almost 2,300 fatalities.
Although the WHO has characterized government efforts as transparent and all-in despite the limitations on the ground, the Telegraph wrote,“ Insiders say a ‘toxic’ atmosphere has developed. Relations between the authoritarian government and international agencies on the ground are tense, while many local officials have been alienated and feel unable to raise issues or challenge their superiors.”
Although these are considered worse case scenarios, sources speaking on condition of anonymity with the press said that many of the people diagnosed with Ebola were presenting several days after their symptoms. “This is one of the single biggest issues right now in this outbreak [and] means they may have already spread it and affects their chance of survival.” Once symptoms begin, the infected can readily transmit the virus to others. Additionally, as supportive care is essential, early intervention has proven to be the difference between life and death.
The WHO is appealing for $88 million in funds be made available to assist in efforts to bring the outbreak to an end. The purpose of these funds is to aid in enhancing contact tracing, community engagement, strengthen infection prevention and control measures and equip treatment centers.
The lack of funding has undermined these efforts, which threaten to fall short as the deadly infection grows across the capital Kampala. The Wall Street Journal noted that the Ministry of Health in Uganda faces a $13 million shortfall to stock hospitals with vital resources, pay contact tracers and health workers.
On Monday, more than 1,500 medical interns that include doctors, pharmacists and nurses in government hospitals said they would go on strike over delays in receiving their salaries and benefits. Many have gone for more than three months without pay and no accommodations or food at the hospitals where they work. Complaints of hunger are common among them.
Lack of proper protective equipment in treating Ebola patients has added to their frustrations. One medical intern has already perished from contracting the deadly virus. However, the Health Ministry has asked them to desist from striking and has made promises that the pay issues would be resolved by the end of the week. Emmanuel Ainebyoona, a spokesman for the health ministry, offered a terse statement, “This is not the time for them to strike, when we have an Ebola outbreak.”
The government’s Ebola incident manager Dr. Henry Kyobe Bosa told the press that Uganda was working with donors to obtain extra funding, though donations were thus far short of their targets. He said, “What we have raised so far from our own resources is not enough.”
Furthermore, health volunteers are reluctant to attend to contacts out of fear they will contract the virus themselves. Dr. Gonzaga Ssenyondo told The Monitor, “There is limited manpower willing to work because most of the health workers have no experience in Ebola management and they fear contracting the deadly virus.”
He feared that in his municipality of Masaka, southwest of the capital near the border with Tanzania, where three confirmed cases of Ebola have been reported, the population remains complacent. The perception of low risk “may result in the mass spread of [Ebola infections] as communities still think that there are no cases. By the time a patient reaches a stage called wet symptoms [late stage] after 21 days, most of his or her accomplices are at risk.”
Although President Yoweri Museveni announced that he would not impose a lockdown on the capital city, last weekend the government extended the three-week lockdown on the two districts—Mubende and Kassanda—at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak for an additional three weeks that include a dusk to dawn curfew.
The lockdowns, however, have been poorly supported, leading to frustrations and anger among the residents in these communities. Food deliveries are not being made as promised which means some have ventured out of their districts looking for sustenance and supplies, threatening to set off new chains of infections. Lack of fuel and medical personnel have also stranded people needing medical attention. Christopher Kwefuga, a government councilor in the district of Mubende, told the press that “people are helpless. Many are bearing untold suffering in their homes and there is no help from government.”
Although public health measures, as noted by the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, appear to have contained the outbreak in Mubende, in the last two weeks most cases have occurred in the densely populated capital of Kampala. There have been 23 confirmed cases among students of which 11 are among children from five schools attending classes in Kampala. Eight school children have perished.
The education minister and First Lady of Uganda, Janet Kataaha Museveni, told the press that the cabinet had decided to end the term for schools two weeks earlier, on November 25, to reduce the risk of infections being spread among students sitting together in densely packed classrooms. No explanations were offered as to why the measures were not being taken immediately.
State Minister of Primary Education Joyce Kaducu said at a recent press briefing, “We have been notified by health experts that children are at a higher risk of death than the adults when they get infected with this virus. We should be very careful as far as protecting these children is concerned.”
However, as corruption is rampant and infighting between various national agencies is common, it also means that response to the outbreak is being hindered, leaving the population vulnerable. In early October, for instance, the Uganda Virus Research Institute, with vast expertise in Ebola outbreaks, was cut out of the response to the outbreak by the health ministry over testing issues.
Dr. Olive Kobusingye, a Senior Research Fellow at the department of public health at Makerere University in Kampala, told the Telegraph that any action taken by an agency deemed inappropriate by government officials will lead to serious repercussions. “In this system, we have so much power concentrated at the top … the consequences are going to be really nasty for you. So, what people do—instead of responding and acting promptly—is, they wait for cues … in the meantime, nothing is happening.”
