Museveni: Stop eating wild animals
Kampala.
President Museveni has warned the public against forest encroachers saying they are to blame for emerging disease outbreaks such as Marburg and Ebola
Mr Museveni said the viruses have existed but in forests and they are now affecting human beings as a result of human activity on natural forests which harbour the reservoirs of the virus.
“These viruses have existed for a long time but the invasion of forests has invoked the viruses. People should stop this bad practice which provokes the viruses,” the President said while presiding over the 52nd Independence Day Ceremony in Kampala yesterday.
He also warned against the habit of eating wild animals and birds such as monkeys and fruit bats which are said to harbour these deadly highly contagious viruses.
“It is not a good practice to eat monkeys. They are our cousins and it’s not a good cultural practice to eat our relatives,” said the President, calling on scientists to do further research and use these animals to develop a vaccine against the viruses.
Meanwhile, UNICEF and World Health Organisation are set to undertake a messaging platform to all health workers in at-risk districts. A scheduled set of updates and messages will be sent via SMS on Marburg transmission routes, disease control and prevention to equip health workers with proper information about the disease.
In a Joint statement, the two UN agencies said that as members of the Ministry of Health Social Mobilisation Task Force, they will run a countrywide media campaign to sensitise the masses on the dangers and precautionary measures to take.
