By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
The Government of Uganda has assured participants to the forth coming SECAM Plenary Assembly cum Golden Jubilee Celebrations that Uganda currently has no confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Haemorrhagic Fever (EVHF).
In a letter sent to Msgr. John Baptist Kauta the Secretary General of Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC), Dr. Henry G. Mwebesa the Ag. Director General of Health Services at the Ministry of Health Uganda reiterated that on June 11, 2019 an outbreak of Ebola Viral Disease was declared in the country affecting Kasese district in South Western Uganda which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The three (3) confirmed cases involving one family were received in Kasese district from DRC on 10th June 2019. Unfortunately, they all passed on between 11thand 13th June 2019. Since then, there has been no new cases reported.
Dr. Mwebesa further indicated that a total of 113 people suspected to have been in contact were identified and are being monitored and those eligible have been vaccinated against Ebola. So far none of them has shown signs of Ebola and 17 of these have already completed the required 21 days of follow-up.
“There is a strong surveillance team right from the Ministry of Health to the villages in Kasese covering all the 89 villages of the district. Routine and event-based surveillance are being done. All travellers to Uganda from DRC are being screened at points of entry,” Dr. Mwebesa indicated.
The Government of Uganda further assured delegates that the risk of spread even within Kasese District where the outbreak was initially reported remains low as all high-risk contacts were identified and closely monitored.
“The risk of the outbreak spreading to Kampala where the SECAM meeting will take place is even much more unlikely because Uganda remains on high alert to contain the outbreak, especially following the ongoing clashes between the Lendu and Hema tribes in Eastern DRC, the epicentre of Ebola outbreak in the DRC,” Dr. Mwebesa indicated.
Meanwhile the Ugandan Ministry of Health requires that all travellers arriving from countries or areas at risk of Yellow Fever transmission MUST present a valid Yellow Fever vaccination certificate.
Countries at risk of yellow fever transmission, as per the WHO International Travel and Health guidelines, Includes, in Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda;
Countries at risk in the Americas include Argentina, the Bolivarian, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago.
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