In order to stop the propagation of Ebola, the head of state has ordered to stop anyone suspected of having contracted hemorrhagic fever if she refuses to isolate herself.
Le Monde with AFP
President Yoweri Museveni ordered traditional healers on Wednesday, October 12, to cease to treat the patients in order to stop the spread of Ebola, who has already cost the life of nineteen people in this African country of the ‘ East. In a television speech to the nation, he also ordered security officials to stop all those suspected of having contracted hemorrhagic fever, often fatal, if they refuse to isolate themselves.
His instructions follow a regional ministerial meeting in Kampala focusing on emergency measures against the epidemic after Uganda announced in September its first death due to highly contagious disease since 2019.
The Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, previously said that clinical trials of Ebola vaccine could start “in the coming weeks” in Uganda, where the virus is still rampant. Ugandan Health Minister Jane Ruth Acenga, said on Wednesday to AFP that a fatal case had been registered in Kampala, an infected person who left the Mubende central district where the epidemic has been reported The first time and which then died in the hospital in the Ugandan capital.
“Wizards, traditionalists and herbalists should not accept sick people now. Stop what you are doing,” added President Museveni. “There is no witchcraft here. Ebola is a disease. The communities of the affected areas must know that Ebola is deadly and propagates by contact with the affected person,” he said.
A strain of the virus from Sudan
“Several vaccines against this virus are at different development stages, two of them could be used for clinical trials in Uganda in the coming weeks, depending on the regulatory and ethical authorizations of the Ugandan government,” added Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the ministerial emergency meeting against the epidemic.
“Unfortunately, Ebola vaccines that have been so effective in controlling recent Ebola epidemics in the DRC are not effective against the type of Ebola virus which is responsible for the current epidemic in Uganda,” deplored Tedros Adhanom ghebreyesus. In question: a strain from Sudan. The director of the WHO, who participated in this meeting from Geneva, counted 54 proven cases and 20 likely, to which must be added 660 contacts under “active monitoring”.
The first case was reported on September 20 in the Mubende central district. Several infections were then identified in four other regions. “Our main objective now is to help the government of Uganda quickly control and contain this epidemic, to stop its spread to districts and neighboring countries,” Dr. Tedros told journalists. The risk of interpays transmission is “raised because of the movements between Uganda and other countries”, estimated WHO.
Uganda, Eastern African Country, has experienced several Ebola epidemics, including the last in 2019 which killed at least five people. Often fatal, this virus causing hemorrhagic fevers was discovered in 1976 and prevails especially in the west of the continent. The worst epidemic in this area, between 2013 and 2016, made more than 11,300 victims. Last week, the United States has declared a stricter screening of travelers from Uganda.