DRC Ebola Outbreak: Uganda Steps Up Health Surveillance, Security along Boarder

Uganda has heightened Health surveillance and security along Lake Albert shores in districts in Bunyoro sub region due to the fresh Ebola Zaire outbreak in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC. It came after DRC reported three new Ebola Zaire cases in the Eastern part of the country over the weekend.

According to World Health OrganizationWorld Health Organization-WHO, two of the victims including a 26-year-old man and 11-month-old girl succumbed to the virus in Beni while third victim, a 7-year-old girl is still hospitalised.

The outbreak has triggered panic in the Ugandan districts in Bunyoro sub region bordering DRC. These include Hoima, Buliisa, Kikuube and Kagadi districts, which share porous borders with DRC.

The health authorities in the affected districts have stepped up Health surveillance and security to stop Congolese nationals from crossing into their territory unscreened.

Dr. Fredrick Byenume, the Health Inspector Hoima District, says they have reinstated all their Ebola Response and Surveillance teams on all landing sites on Lake Albert to screen people coming from DRC for Ebola and the Corona virus.

“We are examining all those entering the country… we are already prepared. The teams and isolation teams are in place,” he said on Tuesday.

His Buliisa counterpart, Dr. Nelson Naisye, the Buliisa District Health Officer, said they are also conducting Ebola and Corona virus screening at the Border.

Naisye said that although the work has become hectic, they have nothing to do but to protect Ugandans from contracting the deadly viruses.

The Hoima Resident District Commissioner, who is also in charge of Kikuube district, Samuel Kisembo,, said they have tightened security along the Uganda-DRC border to control cross border movements and stem the influx of Congolese nationals into the country.

“We had just relaxed a little bit because of corona virus. But now that DRC has registered cases of Ebola Zaire we are now going to reinstate our screening points at Kaiso and Tonya because we had withdrawn them,” Kisembo said.

Dr. James Olwo, the Kagadi District Health Officer equally told URN that the district has deployed a team of Health officers on all landing sites to do surveillance and screen Congolese Nationals entering the district.

By Ahmed Wetaka, Kampala-Uganda