We shall not declare Uganda Ebola free - ministry
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the health ministry’s senior spokesperson. COURTESY PHOTO
What you need to know:
- According to the ministry, the victim did not use the formal border entry point where she would have undergone screening and provided with necessary care by the health workers, adding that a response team is identifying and following up all people who came into contact with the trader.
Kampala. The Ministry of Health has said the country will not be declared Ebola free until the situation in the disease-ravaged neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stabilises.
The announcement comes nine days to the mandatory 42 days after which a country is supposed to be declared Ebola free once there is no new case from the time of confirmation of the first one in Kasese District last month.
“We shall remain in the response mode due to the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are not declaring the country Ebola-free even if the 42 days expire,” Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the ministry senior spokesperson, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
The first Ebola death of a five-year-old boy was confirmed last month in Kasese District. Two other cases, including the deceased’s three-year-old young brother and grandmother, also tested positive days after and were admitted to the isolation facility that was established at Bwera General Hospital.
Contact persons
Yesterday, the ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said they were identifying contacts of a person from DRC who visited Uganda to trade in fish last week before returning to DRC, where she later died of Ebola. “Ministry of Health and WHO surveillance teams established that on Thursday, July 11, 2019, a trader with symptoms consistent with Ebola had been in Uganda to buy fish at Mpondwe market. She was a well-known and regular trader at the market,” a press statement issued yesterday reads in part.
The surveillance teams established that she had four episodes of vomiting on the day she was in the country before she returned to Beni on July 12 where she was admitted to the Beni Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) and died on July 15 after testing positive for Ebola, the statement adds.
According to the ministry, the victim did not use the formal border entry point where she would have undergone screening and provided with necessary care by the health workers, adding that a response team is identifying and following up all people who came into contact with the trader.
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