adminMinistry of Health spokesperson Reuben Mbewe said in a statement that health officials have further been instructed to be alert and monitor any symptoms that could be related to the disease which has so far broken out in Uganda killing several people.
He said medical officials, especially at border posts have been placed on alert to monitor people coming from Uganda. While acknowledging that there has been no Ebola cases reported so far in the country, the official said the government had put in place “precautionary measures” to monitor the disease and has since called on members of the public not to be apprehensive.
There is currently no cure for Ebola and the disease manifests itself as a haemorrhagic fever and is highly infectious and kills within a short time. Some of its symptoms include fever, muscle aches and pain, headaches and sore throat.
Meanwhile, an Ebola outbreak in Uganda is always a nightmare that pushes up the panic levels in the East African country, costing it tourism and trade revenues. News by the ministry of health that the latest outbreak in the mid-western district of Kibaale has now killed 16 people and over 176 others are being monitored has pushed up the fear.
Among those being monitored and quarantined are seven doctors and 13 health workers who treated their colleague who travelled from Kibaale to the capital Kampala to seek medical help after handling Ebola patients. For weeks in July, residents of Nyanswiga village, the epicentre of the current outbreak faced a strange disease that was killing their own in virulent ways.
The victims presented with symptoms like fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, headache, measles-like rash, red eyes, and sometimes with bleeding from body openings. Laboratory results announced on 28 July confirmed the strange disease as Ebola, a deadly haemorrhagic fever.
Reports that the highly infectious disease had spread to the capital Kampala pushed up the panic levels with the country’s President Yoweri Museveni cautioning people to avoid physical contact.
“I therefore appeal to you to be vigilant, avoid shaking of hands; do not take on burying somebody who has died from symptoms which look like Ebola instead call the health workers to be the ones to do it and avoid promiscuity because these sicknesses can also go through sex,” said Museveni.
“When people are sick in hospitals with symptoms which look like Ebola, they should be handled by medical workers wearing protective gear. When we handle this case well we can eliminate Ebola quickly,” he added.
Reports from the epicentre of the outbreak indicate that the admission of patients suspected to be infected with the Ebola to Kagadi Hospital has forced other patients to flee from the facility. Steven Byarugaba, the chairperson of the district Ebola taskforce was quoted by the Daily Monitor yesterday as saying that patients admitted to the hospital when an isolation ward was set up to accommodate those suspected of suffering from Ebola have since abandoned the hospital.
“Several families including mine have been relocated to other subcounties,” said Robert Kyamanywa, who heads a non-governmental organisation in Nyamarunda Subcounty, where Ebola was first confirmed on 28 July.
More than 200 schools have been closed in the district ahead of the official closing date today.
“After consultation with district leaders and relevant medical officials, we have closed schools in the counties of Buyaga East, Buyaga West and Buyanja,” the district education officer John Kyaboona told Daily Monitor on Monday. The closure is a precautionary measure to prevent a possibility of massive infections given the fact that Ebola is highly infectious.
In a bid to plug the panic, the World Health Organisation and the ministry of health announced that the outbreak can be contained and urged countries not to issue traveller trade restrictions to Uganda. — Xinhua-AP
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