Kampala, 17 March 2019: - Uganda now has the capacity for the roll-out of the WHO Global Hepatitis Reporting System (GRSH) and the subsequent quarterly reporting requirement.

This followed a two-day training for various carders of health workers by WHO on hepatitis surveillance. Existing data systems for viral hepatitis in the country were also evaluated at the training.I

n 2015, WHO Member States pledged to eliminate viral hepatitis and mandated WHO to monitor progress towards elimination and to report back. Accordingly, this training workshop was one through which WHO ensured that the country is supported to accurately and effectively report in the GRSH. The GSRH was designed and subsequently launched to support monitoring progress towards the 2016 global targets for elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

To enable countries to relay the data to the GRSH, WHO set up a web-based District Health Information System (DHIS2) module located on the WHO integrated data platform. The system includes indicators from the monitoring and evaluation framework that are not already captured by other health data systems.

Consequently, the WHO Member States including Uganda were provided with unique login credentials to access the District Health Information Management System (DHIS2) online reporting system and enter data for each reporting year.

As such, the workshop was an excellent opportunity to ensure that Uganda uses the system correctly and effectively to improve on reporting. Facilitators for the workshop were from the WHO Headquarters, Regional Office for Africa and Uganda Country Office.

Participants included hospital physicians, hospital records officers, hepatitis program management staff and disease surveillance officials from the Ministry of Health. It was also attended by partners from Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) as well as the National Organization of People Living with Hepatitis.