Protect UPDF against ebola, says DP

Kampala

The Democratic Party has advised the government to take precautionary measures on the safety of UPDF soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following an outbreak of the dreaded Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the area.

DP President John Ssebaana Kizito said the soldiers’ mission in DR Congo to pursue the Lord Resistance Army rebels was good but might turn tragic when they carry the Ebola virus back home.
“We are very worried that Ebola might be carried by our soldiers on their way back. We appeal to the Ministry of Health to be more vigilant along the border and examine our soldiers who are returning home,” he said.

Last month, a joint force of the UPDF, the Congolese army, FARDC and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army launched a military offensive against the LRA rebel camps in the forested Garamba National Park in the DRC following the rebel leader Joseph Kony’s refusal to sign the final peace agreement to end the two-decade war in the north.

Mr Ssebaana made the remarks during the party’s weekly press briefing in Kampala on Tuesday. Information emerged last week that there was an Ebola outbreak in the neighbouring DRC and two people had been confirmed to have died of the virus. DR Congo’s Ministry of Health declared on December 25 that there was an outbreak of Ebola in Mweka District, Kasai Occidental province.

The Director General of Health Services, Dr Sam Zaramba, said the health ministry had communicated to immigration staff at Uganda’s western border points to monitor all people including refugees fleeing from DR Congo into Uganda. “We have asked immigration officials to immediately contact our medical staff in the vicinity in case of any suspicion,” Dr Zaramba said last Thursday.

The World Health Organisation (Who) last week said of 35 suspected cases, including 11 deaths, in western Kasai province, nine were confirmed as Ebola deaths. A major Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, then known as Zaire, in 1995 killed 250 out of the 315 people known to have been infected, including health workers.

Late 2007, Uganda suffered an Ebola outbreak in the western district of Bundibugyo, which claimed 37 lives out of the 148 infected. And since that outbreak that was officially declared over on February 20, 2008, Ugandan health ministry has been on the alert for any eventualities.

Ebola virus is highly contagious and causes a range of effects including fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding. Mortality rates of Ebola fever are extremely high, with the fatality rate ranging from 50 per cent to 89 per cent, depending on the viral sub-type.