Entebbe Airport authorities start screening over Ebola outbreak

Authorities at the Entebbe International Airport and the Ministry of Health have started screening all passengers returning on flights from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The development comes after a reported outbreak of Ebola in the DR Congo.

The screening at Entebbe International Airport started on Friday evening, a health officer, James Eyul has confirmed.
The World Health Organization on May 8, scaled up response after two out of the five people tested for Ebola were found positive. The samples had come from Iponge Health facility located in Bikoro, close to River Congo.

The Ebola Virus according to Centre for Disease Control, an agency that supports health promotion is a rare and deadly disease most commonly affecting people and nonhuman primates. It is caused by an infection with one of five known Ebola virus species, four of which can cause disease in people. Ebola can easily spread in humans through the spread of saliva with infected people, touching a contaminated surface and through insect bites and animals.

The ministry of health on Thursday issued a statement reinstating ebola screening points at the boarder points.

WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assess the needs of the response first-hand.
DRC health ministry Ebola responders have been dispatched to the affected area with a joint WHO and UNICEF team following.

The WHO has made $1 million (842,000 euros) available to stop the virus spreading, judging that risk was "high," a representative of the UN's humanitarian affairs agency OCHA told reporters Friday.
DR Congo has endured nine known outbreaks of Ebola since 1976, when the deady viral disease was first identified in then Zaire by a Belgian-led team.