Uganda has been put on high alert as deadly Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever for which there is no cure, has been confirmed in neighboring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"We are always concerned that is why we have issued a directive to all border posts to be vigilant," Dr Sam Okware, commissioner for health and chairperson for the Ebola Task Force, was quoted by Daily Monitor on Wednesday as saying.
The Ugandan Health Ministry has issued a red alert to all border posts following communication from World Health Organization (WHO) office in Kampala.
Samples from five people have tested positive for the Ebola virus in the southern province of Kasai Occidental, DRC, where authorities have reported some 120 deaths among 300 sick people in the past four months, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
Okware said that the more likely route for viral spread is through Entebbe International Airport."The people at the airport are aware of what is going on. They should report to us anybody suspicious especially if they have a fever," he said.
The WHO on Tuesday activated its Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network, known as GOARN, asking partner health organizations including the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention, where tests on samples from people who tested positive were done, to send epidemiologists and other experts to the DRC.
"The WHO is in the process now of coordinating international teams to go into the area," Hartl said.
So far the only Ebola outbreak recorded in Uganda was in 2000 and claimed the lives of 160 people mainly from Gulu District, northern Uganda.
The Ebola, with an incubation period of seven days on average and a high fatality rate from 50 to 90 percent, is transmitted by contact with blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people.
Symptoms begin with fever and muscle pain, followed by vomiting, diarrhea and in some cases bleeding from orifices, similar to those of the Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever. The two highly contagious and deadly diseases are caused by viruses from the same family.
Uganda just successfully contained an outbreak of Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever for which there is also no cure in the western part of the country one month ago through early interventions by the authorities and the WHO.
The crisis only claimed the life of a miner while his colleague recovered after being treated.
Source: Xinhua
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